A new Lucy
by Catten90
Summary: Lucy gets abandoned by team Natsu but another team saves her. How will things play out as she tries to get over the hurt of abandonment and the scars from her time in captivity. Will she be able to trust again? Will she find Love? Will more dark events be on the horizon?
1. Prologue - Abandoned

I do not own Fairy Tail.

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><p><strong>AN:<strong> Just to let you know, this chapter is only so that I can get a feeling for if the story will be appreciated. I will probably not upload any more chapters until i have more written. Please be patient with me!

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><p><strong>A new Lucy<strong>

_Chapter One – Prologue: Abandoned_

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><p>I simply couldn´t believe that it had come to this, not after everything we had gone through. Phantom lord, Edolas, the grand magic games…<p>

Team Natsu plus Lisanna had gone on a mission to take out a dark guild and with Erza and Natsu on the team it shouldn´t have been much trouble. But everything went wrong, even from the beginning…

We found the dark guild without much trouble, but they were much stronger than they should have been according to the request note. We split up; Gray and Erza took on the lower floor while Natsu, Lisanna and I went to the second one. But they were too many of them…

Gray was taken out and Erza supported his unconscious body while she yelled up to us that we had to leave, that they were too many and too strong. Natsu yelled back that we were coming and that she should get out. Just as we were about to follow her someone grabbed me by the hair and pulled on it until I screamed in pain. Then a rope came around my neck and a man´s voice yelled towards Natsu.

"Hey you! I´ve got your little friend here; you´re not going to leave her here with me are you?" He taunted Natsu but I wasn´t afraid, I knew Natsu would never let me be taken as long as he could do something about it.

"Natsu come on we have to go! There are too many of them, we can never defeat them. I´m scared! I don´t want to die again! I just got Elf-nii-chan and Mira-nee back…" Lisanna screamed and she really sounded terrified but when Natsu turned his eyes towards the floor for a moment I saw an evil glint in her eyes that told me she wasn´t scared at all.

She just wanted me out of the picture so that she could have Natsu´s attention to herself. It didn´t matter that I had told her that I only saw Natsu as a brother, she saw me as a threat anyway and jumped at this opportunity to get me out of her way. Natsu looked up at me with sad eyes and I felt panic fill my body, he really was going to leave me?

"I´m sorry Lucy, but I can´t risk losing Lisanna again… Forgive me." And with that he turned his back on me and led Lisanna out of there, leaving me behind.

I was shocked and it seemed like my captor was as well because it was silent for almost a minute before he chuckled and spoke.

"Well what about that… And here I thought that Fairy Tail was famous for how they treated their nakama… Guess you´re really coming with me then girly." And with that he hit a pressure point on my neck that rendered me unconscious.

x-X-x

When I woke up again I was chained to a wall with magic suppressing cuffs. Everything hurt and I realized that they had beaten me while I was unconscious. I could tell that I still had my keys but because of the cuffs I could only feel that my spirits were there, I couldn´t actually call them forth. It felt as if they were on one side of a glass wall and I on the other, they were banging on the wall trying to reach me but I couldn´t respond to them.

I realized that I shouldn´t give up hope, that Natsu and the others surely got back and told the others that I had been taken and that they were preparing to come for me. But somewhere deep inside I knew that I had been truly abandoned and that no one would come because no one would know that I was still alive.

x-X-x

About a week had passed and still no one had come for me. My captors were beating me and had taken a liking to whip my back until I lost consciousness. The first time they had used my own whip but Loke had forced his gate open long enough to grab my whip and my keys before it shut again. I had seen in his eyes that he had intended to save me as well but he hadn´t enough time, at least my keys were safe now…

My captors had talked about when the next full moon would come and I got the feeling that I wanted to be out of here by then but hopelessness and depression weighed heavily on me and I could find no energy to try and escape. I was close to giving up…

x-X-x

The night of the full moon came and my captors made sure that I was awake when the moonlight spilled down on me through a hole in the roof. I was on edge, I could feel that something bad was about to happen but I was powerless to do something about it.

"The night we have waited for has come, tonight we will know if we have been blessed as lykans or not. If our goddess accepts this celestial mage as our offering we will be blessed." The man who had caught me said to the others that had gathered in the room. I recognized them by voice, since they all wore black hoods that hid their faces in shadows.

He lifted a sword and started to chant.

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><p><em>By the power of the moon.<em>

_In the name of our lykan goddess Fenrisa._

_We offer this human too you, so that we may be blessed._

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><p>He then slashed his sword at me and the sharp edge of the blade cut me across the face, starting on my forehead, going straight through my left eyebrow and across my left eye and then going down my cheek before turning towards my ear before the blade left my skin.<p>

I had instinctively closed my eyes as the sword came towards me and now only my right one would open as I screamed when immense pain took over my body. There was much more pain than there should have been and soon everything around me faded away as I once again lost consciousness.

x-X-x

"Come on princess wake up, please Lucy…" I heard a familiar voice tell me when I started regaining consciousness. I slowly opened my right eye and met Loke´s worried ones. My first thought was how could he be here but then I realized that I no longer was in the dark and damp basement were the dark guild had held me captive, I was in the spirit world.

"Loke! What happened!? How did I get here!?" I asked him frantically while lightly pressing my hand against my injured eye, it hurt a little but not as much as it should and I was getting worried about my vision.

"Calm down Lucy, your other spirits and I combined our power to bring you here when the dark guild tried to use that spell on you. If the spell had succeeded they would all have gotten cursed with the lykan disease and you would have died." Loke told me and ran his hand up and down my back to calm me down.

"What´s lykans disease? And will my eye be alright? What happened to all my cuts and bruises? I should hurt much more than I am…" I asked him, hearing the panic in my voice.

"Lykans disease means that when the moon is out they would have transformed into wolves, gaining more strength and heightened senses. They would have been very hard to take down but thanks to us pulling you here the spell was interrupted. But since their goddess didn´t get her offering they should all be dead now." He paused and looked away before he continued. "I don´t know what will happen to your eye, you won´t be able to open it as long as you are in our world though. We made sure of that in case there is some magic left in there that could possibly harm you more, you will have to find out what the spell did to you when you are sent back to your body."

"What do you mean sent back to my body? My body´s right here…" I said and looked down on myself. My hair was the same, my skin still pale but the scars made by my captors were there now and I had lost weight but I was still me.

A hand landed on my shoulder and I screamed in fright, terrified that I was going to get hurt again. The hand released me as if I had burned them and I spun around to see that it was only Aquarius who had attempted to give me comfort. She gave me a sad smile and told me.

"We were only able to pull your spirit here; your body is still where you were before. You will be sent back to your body when it has healed enough but it might take a while, a week or so…"

I reached out with my hand towards her and she gripped it tightly while gently pulling me to my feet, Loke rising as well.

"But won´t my body die from dehydration and malnutrition during that time?"

"No your body is in a stasis like state right now and will be until your spirit returns." Loke reassured me and then looked uncomfortable for a moment before revealing another fact to me.

"Because we only pulled your spirit here this time instead of your whole body, one day here won´t be three months in the real world. This time it will be the other way around which means that you will be here with us for one year and three months before you can go back."

I was shocked by that revelation but despite everything that had happened to me during these last few weeks I accepted that quickly. It felt as if there was a blanket over all the hurt and anguish I had gone through and for as long as I was here, what I had gone through probably wouldn´t bother me. I would most likely still have to deal with everything when I returned to my own body though.

"Alright, what should we do during all that time then? Is it possible for me to train here with you and be stronger when I return to my body?" Aquarius smirked at me and said.

"That is possible; you want us to train you?"

"Yeah, I do." I answered confidently and smirked back.

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><p><em>Time skip 1 year and 3 months<em>

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><p>Today was the day I was going to be sent back to my own body, I had spent the last fifteen months training with my spirits and for the first time ever I really felt that I was strong. I had increased my magic capacity and learned a few more spells of star magic like <em>Urano metria<em> as well as improved my strength and hand to hand. No one could call me weak anymore.

Loke had warned me that when I went back all of this would seem just like a dream with the difference that I would still have all my new abilities and knowledge. The spirit king had told me that in addition to the gold keys and silver keys there also existed five animal kingdom keys as well as a few other keys. I had decided to try and find those keys when I got the opportunity.

I was just hanging out with all my spirits when a tingling feeling overcame me and I started fading. I was going back to the nightmare I had left behind but despite that I smiled at my spirit friends. I didn´t know when I would be able to smile again after all.

x-X-x

I opened my right eye slowly and with a groan of pain I lifted my head just enough to look at my surroundings. I was still chained to the wall but every dark guild member that had been down here during the full moon spell was lying on the floor, dead.

The stench of decaying bodies was strong and I licked my dry lips to try and keep from gagging. That´s when I realized that I had gotten a set of baby fangs much like the ones the dragon slayers had. I also suspected that my senses had been raised but I wasn´t entirely sure about that yet.

I suddenly felt very afraid that I would turn into a wolf when the moon was out but as soon as that fear grabbed me, I heard Loke´s voice in my head, reassuring me.

"_You won´t turn into a wolf, you might have gotten some of the traits though but you won´t fully turn. I promise."_

I felt the fear leave me again, if Loke promised it wouldn´t happen it wouldn´t. A celestial spirit never broke their promises to their key holder. Suddenly the sounds of a few people entering the room above my head reached me and I froze in panic.

They could be from Fairy Tail here to rescue me but they could also be more members from the dark guild here to continue their torture on me. I held my breath as they found the stairs leading down here and as I heard them come closer and closer I could only hold my breath and hope for the best. I shut my eye again, too scared to actually watch whoever it was who was going to find me in this vulnerable position.

Suddenly the sound of footsteps stopped, I had counted them and thought that there were four people about to enter the basement. Then one of them spoke with a voice that I recognized.

"What the hell… I can smell a lot of dead bodies in the basement but also something that reminds me about… but that´s impossible, they said she was dead…"

"Who do you think you smell Laxus?" Another slightly familiar voice asked and when Laxus answered him, my blood went cold with irrational fear. If Laxus was here the rest of the Raijinshuu was also and they wouldn´t hurt me, so why was I still scared?

"It smells like Blondie."

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><p>Please let me know what you think! Is it worth continuing?<p>

Love C


	2. Rescued from the Nightmare

I do not own Fairy Tail.

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><p><strong>AN: <strong>Hi again guys! Thanks to the massive positive response I got from the first chapter I give you chapter number two =) I will try and update every weekend but I will give no promises. Love you all!

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><p><strong>A new Lucy<strong>

_Chapter Two – Rescued from the Nightmare_

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><p><em><strong>Recap:<strong> Suddenly the sound of footsteps stopped, I had counted them and thought that there were four people about to enter the basement. Then one of them spoke with a voice that I recognized._

_"What the hell… I can smell a lot of dead bodies in the basement but also something that reminds me about… but that´s impossible, they said she was dead…"_

_"Who do you think you smell Laxus?" Another slightly familiar voice asked and when Laxus answered him, my blood went cold with irrational fear. If Laxus was here the rest of the Raijinshuu was also and they wouldn´t hurt me, so why was I still scared?_

_"It smells like Blondie."_

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><p>The footsteps then became rushed and when the door to the basement suddenly was kicked off its hinges I whimpered in fear and tried to make myself even smaller. I kept my eyes tightly shut, afraid that it wasn´t real and that they would disappear if I opened my eyes.<p>

"Oh god…" I heard a female voice whimper, most likely the only female on the team, Evergreen. Hurried footsteps closed in on me and then two fingers pressed against the side of my neck, searching for my pulse.

"She is still alive…" A male voice whispered as if he didn´t dare believe it. Another person came up to me as well and asked me.

"Lucy? Can you hear us?" He gently grasped my chin to tilt my head up but the innocent touch frightened me and I whimpered and tried to pull away only to realize that I didn´t have the strength to do that.

"Shh… Lucy calm down, we´re not going to hurt you. Open your eyes." The same voice told me and I thought it was Laxus but I wasn´t completely sure. I slowly cracked my right eye open and was met by the sight of Laxus stormy blue-grey eyes and blonde hair.

"La… Laxus?" I got out through my dry throat and cracked lips.

"Yeah Blondie, we´re going to get you out of here." He told me confidently before turning to the person beside him and asking.

"Can you do something about those cuffs?" I slowly moved my head until I saw that the first one to approach me had been Freed, his beautiful green hair the first thing I noticed.

"Yes but you better be ready to catch her, she will not be able to stand on her own. From the looks of her wrists she has been hanging here for weeks…" He then drew his sword to write a rune that would unlock my cuffs but at the sight of the sword I panicked. I screamed, loud and terrified and tried to get away unsuccessfully since I was still chained to the wall.

"Ah shit! Hurry Freed, get her free and then put away your sword. I think that´s what´s scaring her." Laxus told him while trying to hold me still by hugging me against his own body. Thankfully the hug didn´t freak me out even more and Freed had quickly gotten me free from the cuffs and put away his sword again. As soon as the cuffs let go of my abused wrists my legs gave out and I would have collapsed on the ground if Laxus had not held on to me.

I felt the pull of unconsciousness tug on me again but just before I slipped back into the darkness I heard Laxus tell the others that they were going back to their hotel room to care for me properly before letting the guild know I was still alive.

Then everything went dark.

x-X-x

I woke up slowly, one sense at a time and the first on to return to me were feeling. I could tell that I was lying on a soft bed with a thin sheet covering me; I was still wearing my tattered clothes which were a relief. I didn´t think I could handle it if they had stripped me and cared for my wounds while I was unconscious.

The second sense to return to me was hearing. I could tell from the number of heartbeats that all four of the Raijinshuu were in the room with me, and as if wanting to confirm it to me, they started talking.

"Shouldn´t we check her over for wounds now instead of waiting for her to wake up? What if she bleeds out on us?" Evergreen asked and I could tell that she only meant well even if that wasn´t the reaction they were going to get in case they tried taking my clothes off.

"No she has gone through enough, she will need to feel like she´s in control and we will take that away if we take her clothes off. Besides I can tell that she isn´t bleeding, at least not much and she has no infections thankfully, I would smell it otherwise." Laxus told her and I heard her hum in understanding. They were silent for a while before Freed asked the question I was sure they all were wondering about.

"How did she end up there? Did team Natsu not come back telling everyone she had died in battle? Why would they not tell us that she was captured so we could have gone after her?"

"I don´t know… We´ll have to ask Blondie that later when she wakes up." Laxus replied and the next one to talk was Bickslow.

"Do you think she will be alright again?" _"Alright again? Alright again?"_ His babies copied him and they sounded so worried and cute that I felt the corner of my mouth twitch a little, trying to make me form a smile.

"I… I don´t know. I hope she will, for everyone's sake but if she has lost the spark in her heart that made her, her… then I don´t know…" Laxus said honestly and was that sadness I could hear in his voice?

"I hope she will be alright… She was the first one to forgive us after fantasia…" Evergreen whispered and the others made sounds of agreement. By now every trace of sleep and unconsciousness had disappeared and I slowly stretched my body with a few whimpers of pain before I slowly opened my right eye to take a look at my new surroundings.

Above me was a simple white roof and in the corner of my eye I could see a large window framed by a red curtain. I looked to the side and saw the Raijinshuu sitting in two couches, all of them looking at me. When they realized that I really was awake Evergreen shot up from the couch and made her way over to me.

She moved slowly as to not scare me and picked up a glass of water from the side table and helped me drink with gentle movements. When I had drained the glass I felt better and was able to slowly sit up with Evergreens help. They were all watching me as if they waited for me to say something, I didn´t though and so Evergreen was the one to break the sudden silence.

"What happened to you Lucy?" She asked me in a soft voice I had never heard her use before. I didn´t answer her, I didn´t say anything at all. I didn´t know what to say, how to explain what had happened. I only looked her in the eyes and tried to convey my conflicting feelings through them. I heard her gasp so apparently she had picked up on the feelings of hopelessness, sadness, anguish and torment that I was currently feeling. I turned my eyes down to stare at the hands that lay limply in my lap, the white bandages around the wrists marking them as my own.

I heard the guys move and then the bed dipped as all three of them joined Evergreen and I on the bed, someone laid a hand on my shoulder and I looked up and was met once again with Laxus face close to my own.

"Lucy, do you have wounds that need looked after? Other than the slash on your face and your wrists?" I kept my eye locked with his, understanding that he broke down the large question Evergreen asked me into smaller ones that would be easier for me to answer with the state of mind I was in. I was grateful that he did that and so I nodded my head yes, I had more wounds that needed to be looked after.

"Did you do something to my eye?" I asked in a whisper, deathly afraid that the answer would be yes. I wanted to check out my eye on my own first, in case the lykan spell thing had done something to it.

"No, I thought it would be better for you to wake up so that you could give us more information about what happened. The only things we did when you were unconscious was taking care of your wrists since they were in pretty bad shape, you´ll probably get some scars…" He told me honestly and I nodded absent mindedly. I already knew I was going to get scars…

"What are your other wounds? Do you need to see a doctor?" Freed asked me and I pulled my eyes from Laxus to focus them at Freed instead. His long green hair framing his face and worried blue-green eyes locked on me. He had left his sword on the coffee table by the couch for which I was grateful, I didn´t know if I was going to get another panic attack at the sight of it or not.

"I don´t need a doctor, I think… It´s on my back, they whipped me." I told them with the same strangely emotionless voice as I had told them everything else in. I felt very strange… Like a part of me had already healed from this entire ordeal while another part of me still was raw and sensitive to all of its cruelty. Then I once again heard Loke´s voice in my head, once again reassuring me.

_"It´s alright princess, you feel that way because during your stay here with us you did heal. But the memories linger in your body which will make you have to go through it again, though it will not take as long or be as hard as the first time."_

He told me before his voice faded away again and I realized that someone of the Raijinshuu was growling.

I looked to my left and as I expected it was Laxus who was growling, it was a dragon slayer trait that I had noticed all three of them had, Laxus, Gajeel and… and Natsu. As I thought about the pink haired fire dragon slayer pain stabbed me where my cracked heart was residing in my chest. He was supposed to be my best friend… and he had abandoned me like I meant nothing…

One of my hands had found its way to my chest and I pressed a closed fist against the origin of this new pain to try and keep it at bay. I closed my eye again and let out a whimper that made Evergreen pull me closer in a gentle hug.

"Let´s get you cleaned up; you will feel better after a shower. We can talk more later." She said and led me to the bathroom, leaving the boys sitting on the bed. When the bathroom door closed behind us Evergreen turned and simply looked at me before speaking.

"I don´t know what happened to you yet but I can see the pain in your eyes. I want to help you but I don´t know how or even if I´m capable to… But I want to try because you forgave us and gave us a second chance…" I interrupted her by putting a hand on her arm.

"Thank you…" I told her in a whisper and she gave me a weak smile in return before she started the water in the shower and helped me out of what was left of my clothes. I heard her choke back a sob when I bared my scarred and wounded back to her but she still helped me wash my hair and clean my body even with tears falling from her eyes.

It was amazing to feel clean again and even if the soap stung in my many wounds it was still the best shower I had ever had. But all too soon I was clean and running out of hot water so I turned the shower off and let Evergreen help wrap my hair and body in a towel. Then I looked myself in the mirror for the first time.

I looked the same but empty, like a shell of whom I was before. My hair was still the same; my right eye was still the color of milk chocolate but darkened by the pain I felt. My left eye was closed and I dared not open it until I was alone, I had a feeling that I might freak out when I saw it… My skin was still pale, even more so now than before and marred with scars and wounds that would become scars. I had lost weight but thanks to the training I did in the spirit world my muscles had not degenerated, instead I would gain the body I had gotten thanks to the training when I had finished healing. I met Evergreens eyes in the mirror and she told me.

"I´ll go out and grab some clothes for you to wear, and the medical supplies. Do you mind if I bring in Freed to put a healing rune on your back?"

"You can bring Freed but I might freak out since he writes the runes with his sword… it was a sword that gave me the wound on my face." I explained to her and she nodded before saying.

"I´ll let him know, I´ll be right back." And with that she left the bathroom and I was alone. I quickly faced the mirror again, determined to examine my eye now when I had the chance since they would surely insist on checking that over as well later. I wanted to be prepared before that happened.

I slowly cracked my left eye open and when I felt no pain I opened it fully only to be frozen in shock and horror. My left eye had changed. It was no longer the color of milk chocolate; instead it looked like the eye of a wolf. All glow-in-the-dark yellow-green with a black slitted pupil. No white and milk chocolate...It was like a pulse of electricity went through me and suddenly I realized just how much my senses had improved.

My vision was flawless and my hearing on par with the dragon slayers. My sense of smell had also improved drastically and I let out a small whimper as my normal eye was wide open in horror while my left eye, my wolf eye, simply looked vicious. I heard Evergreen and Freed outside the door and quickly closed my left eye again, I didn´t want them to see it…

The bathroom door opened and Evergreen entered first, followed by Freed who closed the door behind him, giving me as much privacy as possible. Evergreen came up to me and turned me so that I was facing her and had my back turned toward Freed who winced when he saw the damage.

"Close your eyes Lucy, Freed will write the healing rune on your back and then he will go back out again. I promise he won´t hurt you, do you trust me?" Evergreen told me but I didn´t answer her, I had trusted Natsu and look where that got me… But I did close my eyes and she nodded to Freed that he could begin.

I tensed up as I heard him draw his sword but I shut my eyes tightly and clenched my jaw to keep the fear inside me. I didn´t want him to feel bad when it wasn´t his fault. But he was fast and it wasn´t long before the door closed behind him as he left us alone again.

"Lucy? Are you okay?" Evergreen asked me worriedly when I didn´t move even though Freed had left. I lifted my head and answered her honestly.

"No I´m not okay… I will be though." Evergreen gave me a hesitant smile and then she helped me rewrap my wrists and dress in some of her clothes before she brushed my hair and braided it for me.

When we exited the bathroom I was assaulted by the delicious scent of food that made my mouth water, it seemed as if while I was in the shower Laxus and Bickslow had gotten us enough food to feed at least a few dragon slayers. I sat down in one of the two couches and quickly made myself a plate, I was starving.

The others joined me and made their own plates, chatting among themselves as they ate. I realized that I felt comfortable with them despite the betrayal that had happened to me. I had thought I would never be able to trust again but perhaps this group of people was going to prove me wrong…

Suddenly there was a pressure against my thigh and I looked down to see that one of Bickslows babies had left his side and come over to me. The little figure looked up at me while gently pressing against my leg, giving me the impression that he wanted to comfort me, he was so cute. I looked up to make sure that the others were busy talking and then carefully picked him up and hugged him against me, he reminded me a little of my spirits and I figured that Bickslow must have a similar bond to them as I had to my spirits.

The little guy seemed overjoyed that I had accepted him; they were probably just as lonely as Bickslow seemed to be. I suddenly felt bad that I hadn´t tried to become his friend sooner and promised both myself and the little guy in my lap that I would do my best to remedy that now. As if he had heard my thoughts, the little guy in my lap gave away a purr of happiness and as soon as he did the other four were also at my side, pressing against me and giving me comfort.

I smiled then, my first true smile since the start of my last mission with team Natsu and looked up when I noticed that the others had stopped talking to see that they were all staring at me with surprise in their eyes, even Bickslow seemed surprised at the actions of his little friends.

"I´m sorry… did I do something wrong?" I asked while unconsciously hugging the little one in my lap closer against me.

"No… I´ve just never seen them do that before…" Bickslow answered with an almost dazed expression on his face, his eyes glued to the one in my lap. Then the corners of his mouth turned up in a genuine happy smile and he raised his eyes to meet with mine while asking.

"You´re not freaked out by them? By me?"

"Why would I? They remind me of my spirits only in another form." I looked him in the eyes and asked him seriously. "And why on earth would you freak me out?" He looked startled when I looked him directly in the eyes since he for once didn´t wear the visor he usually wore.

"Because I´m different… Do you realize that you´re one of the few outside of the Raijinshuu that looks me in the eyes when I don´t wear my visor? Mira, Erza, Master and Gildarts are the only other ones who does that, everyone else is scared that I´ll use my magic on them."

"Then I´m different too. Why would you use your magic on me just because I make eye contact? That´s just stupid… besides, I like your eyes, they´re beautiful." I told him honestly and gave him something that could almost be called a smile if not for the emotional pain that was practically radiating off me.

I turned away from the shell shocked expressions of the Raijinshuu and looked back at the cute little figures that were surrounding me.

"Do they have any names?" I asked and Bickslow had to clear his throat before answering.

"Yes, Kim, Pim, Nim, Dim and Mim. Kim and Pim are on your left side, Dim and Mim on your right and Nim is the one in your lap."

The others picked up conversation again after that when they saw me preparing a second plate of food, I was still hungry but felt the need to wait a little before my second helping as to not shock my system and give me a stomach ache. Bickslows babies stayed close to me and I couldn´t believe how cute they were! How anyone could be freaked out by them was more than I could understand.

But when my second plate was empty they returned to Bickslow, all except for Nim, and the feeling in the room changed. I looked up to see all of them watching me and I knew that the questioning was about to begin again, hopefully this time I would be able to give them the answers they were looking for.

"We have to talk about what happened to you Lucy, how long were you in that basement?" Laxus asked, once again starting with questions that would be relatively easy to answer.

"I know… I was there the entire time since they took me, a few weeks to a month maybe? I was unconscious a lot…" I answered quietly.

"What did they do to you?"

"They beat me and whipped me mostly... They were going to kill me to use me as an offering to some goddess named Fenrisa to be 'blessed' with lykans disease. He chanted a spell and then he slashed at me with his sword, giving me the wound on my face. I was supposed to die but the spell failed since my spirits pulled my soul to the spirit world to protect me. They all died because the spell failed and when my body had healed enough my spirit was sent back, then you guys found me." I explained and felt all of them take a closer look at the newly formed scar on my face and my closed left eye.

"Did you lose your eye?" Evergreen asked hesitantly and seemed relieved when I shook my head no.

"No I didn´t lose my eye or my vision. But my eye… and a few other things… changed." I admitted and closed my eye for a moment before opening it again. I was scared about what they would think when they saw just how much had changed and if I was going to be deemed a freak. I was terrified of being abandoned a second time.

"Do you remember the chant he said before slashing at you?" Freed asked me with a frown and I mimicked him as I tried to remember.

"I think it was: by the power of the moon, in the name of our lykan goddess Fenrisa, we offer this human too you, so that we may be blessed. Or something like that…" Freed´s eyes widened and he paled a little, making the bad feeling I had about everything only increase.

"Are you sure?" He asked and I only nodded my head before lowering it to look down at my lap and little Nim who was still perched there.

"What does that mean Freed?" Laxus wanted to know and Freed took his eyes off me to explain the situation to his idol.

"Well, had the spell succeeded all of those dark guild mages would have transformed into wolves every time the moon came out, giving them more power and superior strength. Thanks to Lucy´s spirits that did not happen and since the spell was broken, the dark guild mages all died. But the spell was active when she was cut by the sword… And if my guess is right, she has acquired a few wolfish traits." Freed turned his attention back on me and the others followed, all of them wanting to know if Freed was right or not. I sighed but knew that I had to tell them, there simply wasn´t any way around that.

"I have gotten fangs and my vision, hearing and sense of smell have improved." I said quietly and curled in on myself, waiting for their reactions. It was quiet but when someone sat down next to me on the couch I flinched before curling up even more and whimpering pathetically.

"Lucy look at me." Laxus demanded softly from his seat next to me and I hesitantly tilted my head up to look at him with my right eye.

"Why does the fact that you have fangs and improved senses frighten you? That´s no different than what the dragon slayers have." He asked gently.

"I´m not so much worried about that as I am about my new eye…" I admitted weakly and fought the tears that wanted to appear in my open eye.

"Then what happened to your eye? I´m sure it´s nothing to be worried about." He told me in an effort to comfort me. I simply looked at him for a while before opening my left eye as well, expecting him to flinch away from me.

But he only kept looking at me, not showing in any way that he was disturbed by the new look of my left eye, and for that I was unbelievably grateful.

"There´s nothing wrong with you left eye, I think it's beautiful." He told me, completely serious, earning him another true smile.

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><p>Let me know what you think! Love C<p> 


	3. The betrayal of a fire dragon slayer

I do not own Fairy Tail.

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><p><strong>A new Lucy<strong>

_Chapter Three – The betrayal of a fire dragon slayer_

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><p><em><strong>Recap:<strong> "There´s nothing wrong with you left eye, I think it's beautiful." He told me, completely serious, earning him another true smile._

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><p>He then gently turned my head to show the others but as soon as I realized his intentions I closed my eye again, once more scared of their reactions.<p>

"Open your eye Lucy, let them see it. It´s alright." Laxus said quietly in my ear. My left arm pulled Nim even closer, his vibrating purr a great source of comfort while my right hand wrapped around Laxus wrist before I took a deep breath and let my left eye open once again.

I held my breath as I waited for their reactions but once again I had been worried for nothing.

"Wow… That actually looks really awesome…" Bickslow said with wide eyed honesty.

"So beautiful…" Evergreen whispered without taking her own eyes off my wolfish one.

"That is really interesting… and pretty." Freed admitted with a slight blush adorning his cheeks.

"See? Nothing to be so worried about." Laxus told me and wrapped one massive arm around my shoulders for a hug. I couldn´t hold back the tears any longer so I allowed him to hug me and let the tears fall.

x-X-x

Later when my tears had dried and the excitement about my new eye had receded, Freed had examined it and told me that there was nothing wrong with it or me. The changes only meant that I got fangs, improved senses (especially my vision) and a new look on my left eye. He too promised me that I wouldn´t change to a wolf but he also warned me that it wasn´t impossible that my new wolf eye could hold more abilities than we knew of now. Since I had calmed down he decided to pick up the questions again.

"There is just one thing I do not understand Lucy and that is why team Natsu returned and told us all that you had died during the battle against the dark guild mages? Why would they not simply tell us that you had been captured so that we could go after you?" I lowered my eyes towards the floor and sighed as sadness swept through me, what had happened hurt so much but not all of team Natsu was to blame and I was going to make sure that everyone knew that.

"My guess is that Erza, Gray and Happy really thought I had died since they were not present when I was taken. Natsu must have told them that I died and they would have no reason not to believe him. Erza and Gray would never abandon me like that and neither would Happy. What happened was that we had split up to take on the dark guild mages, Happy was patrolling the outside, Erza and Gray were fighting on the first floor and Natsu, Lisanna and I went to the second one. We realized rather quickly that the information we had about the job was incorrect and that the dark guild mages were much more powerful than expected. We were overwhelmed, Gray was taken out and we were about to retreat when one of them managed to grab me and put a rope around my neck to keep me from escaping. But I wasn´t worried because I knew that Natsu wouldn´t just let them take me, he had Lisanna with him as well so they could have taken out the man holding me easily enough... But then Lisanna started screaming that they had to go, that she couldn´t die when she had just gotten her life and family back. And Natsu… Natsu listened to her. He told me that he was sorry but that he couldn´t lose Lisanna one more time, then he asked for my forgiveness before he turned his back to me and left with Lisanna clinging to him." Tears were streaming from my eyes by now and I looked up so that I could meet their eyes as I spoke the last few words.

"He just left me there… in the hands of our enemy…" Then I broke down sobbing and I didn´t stop for a very long time.

* * *

><p><strong>Laxus POV<strong>

Blondie had finally managed to cry herself to sleep; her heartbreaking sobs made my heart ache for the girl who was the light of our guild. I couldn´t believe that Natsu of all people had done this to her…

We were all shaken by her story and tried to come up with ideas to help her but since she was sleeping now, I had decided that we all try and get some rest. I had a feeling she was going to get nightmares so who knew for how long she would sleep peacefully…

Ever had laid down next to Blondie on the bed and was also sleeping, her eyes red and puffy from all the crying. Bickslows little Nim resting in between them; it seemed as if he really had taken a liking to the blonde girl. Bickslow himself was stretched out on the other bed, sleeping soundly with his other four babies.

Freed was sitting on the other couch and reading a book named _'Curses, Blessings and everything in between.'_ In the hopes of getting more information about what has been done to Lucy and how it might affect her. I sighed and cracked my neck to get rid of some of the tension in my neck and shoulders, it wasn´t like me to worry this much about someone else outside of the Raijinshuu but then Blondie had always been special… And I did care more about the people in the guild nowadays but I wasn´t going to change overnight either.

"I´m going to use the communications lacrima to try and get a hold of gramps, he needs to know about this…" I muttered in Freeds direction, causing him to tear himself from the book to look up at me and tell me.

"Be careful about how much you tell him, Lucy probably would not want anyone in the guild to know what happened until she has had time to process and accept what has happened to her. Make sure that you only tell Master and that he knows to not tell anyone else for now. Tell him that we will take care of her for now." I looked surprised at Freed and said.

"You think she´ll agree to stay with us for now? Wouldn´t she want to go home?" Freed only shook his head no and explained.

"No, I do not think so. We saved her from that hell, so she will feel safer with us than with anyone else for now, also, she was abandoned by Natsu who was supposed to be her best friend. If we leave her as well now then we will lose her forever, she will see that as we abandoning her as well and will probably leave the guild if she manages to get herself out of the depression. And I am sure that she will not wish to go home, she asked me to put up some runes in her apartment to keep others out of the bathroom while she was in there. Apparently her team does not know the meaning of the word privacy." When Freed stopped talking I was clenching my jaw so tightly it hurt, how had she managed to stay sane it that crazy team? I nodded to Freed that I understood and he returned to his book as I grabbed the communications lacrima from my bag and stepped outside our hotel room and headed to the roof to get some privacy while talking to gramps. I activated the lacrima and waited until I could see gramps on the smooth surface of the stone.

_"Laxus, how are you my boy? How did the mission go? I had expected you guys to be back by now, I was starting to worry."_

"I´m fine gramps, we all are and the mission was a success. Something´s happened though and we probably won´t be back for a few weeks at least." I told him while desperately trying to figure out a way to tell him everything without betraying Blondie.

_"What happened?"_ He asked, a worried frown appearing on his forehead. I sighed but decided to just tell him, if I explained it he would understand the need for secrecy.

"Well I don´t really know how to explain this mess so I´m just going to come out and say it alright? We found Lucy; she had been captured by some dark guild that tried to use her to gain the lykans disease using a spell that would have killed her had it succeeded. She´s in bad shape both mentally and physically right now but she´ll be alright with enough time. The troubling thing is that Natsu and Lisanna abandoned her in the hands of the dark guild they were sent to annihilate when they could have easily gotten her free. She told us that Happy, Erza and Gray had nothing to do with that and that Natsu and Lisanna probably told them she had died and why wouldn´t they believe them? They were a team!" I had to stop and take a few deep breaths to keep my anger under control, me and Blondie weren´t particularly close but all of this would surely change that, no way I was letting her go back to her old team again!

_"She… She´s alive?"_ Gramps asked with tear filled eyes and when I nodded my head yes they fell down his cheeks.

"Yeah she´s alive. She´s down in our hotel room, sleeping."

_"Good, that´s good… I want to tell everyone that she´s alright but I´m guessing from your expression that it would be a bad idea…"_

"Yeah, tell no one for now. I´m leaving Blondie in control of when she wants to tell the guild she´s alive, she has to have a chance to heal from this first before going back to them. And I think there´s something weird going on as well, sure Natsu and Lisanna have always been close but it´s really not like Natsu to abandon anyone, much less Lucy. I think something´s going on that we have yet to figure out…"

_"Hmm… you´re probably right boy, I won´t tell anyone. And I´ll trust you when you say that Erza, Gray and Happy had nothing to do with this. I will leave it to you and your team to care for her and help her through this. I know a little about lykans disease and am I right to guess that she has had a few changes?"_

"Yeah, she was really upset about it because she was afraid that we would think she was a freak and leave her as well. She has gotten heightened senses and fangs much like those of a dragon slayer and her left eye has changed to that of a wolf."

_"I see… well there´s nothing wrong with that so make sure she knows that. I´ll leave her in your care for now Laxus, please inform me of any changes and then later when you´re coming home."_

"I will gramps, I´ll talk to you soon." I told him before the image of him faded away and the communications lacrima turned itself off. I turned to go back to our room when my sensitive dragon hearing picked up a terrified scream coming from downstairs. Without a second thought I burst into a sprint and headed back down the stairs, instinctively knowing that it was Lucy who was screaming.

* * *

><p><strong>Lucy POV<strong>

_I was back in the damp and dark basement that had become my own personal hell on earth. The shackles were back around my wrists and I was once again chained to the wall, completely defenseless. I hated feeling defenseless…_

_The only thing I could see was an empty chair that stood in front of me and a small table next to it that held a burning candle and a few metal instruments that were covered in dark, dried blood. The burning candle was the only light in the room and while the flame flickered wildly it never went out._

_Suddenly I heard footsteps approaching and a person I knew very well stepped inside the circle of light and took a seat on the chair. He looked at me with eyes filled with disgust and hatred and while I wanted to look away from those black orbs, I was unable to do so._

_"You are so weak Lucy… I can´t believe I never saw that before." He told me and I felt my heart crack a little more. He told me that in a voice that was completely serious, something that almost never happened._

_"You don´t mean that Natsu…" I whispered, holding back tears as I watched my pink haired best friend look at me with his lip curled in distaste of me._

_"Oh but I do Lucy, why else would I leave you here? If you were strong you would be able to get out of here yourself but you don´t. You had to have Laxus and the rest of the Raijinshuu to come and rescue you."_

_He stood up from his seat and I could hear more people move around the edges of the room, hidden in shadows. He walked up to me and leaned in to whisper in my ear._

_"Well they won´t be able to save you this time."_

_And with that he lit his hands on fire and touched my clothes, setting them and me on fire. I screamed as the fire burned away my clothes, burned my skin and set fire to my flesh. I watched Natsu turn his back on me and walk back into the shadows, leaving me to burn to death while still being chained to the wall in the dark, damp basement…_

* * *

><p>I woke up screaming, slapping at myself to put out the fire that had been burning me in my nightmare. Suddenly my arms were restrained and I panicked. I knew I was awake but the memories of the nightmare lingered and when I could no longer move freely, I freaked.<p>

Since my arms were being restrained I used my feet to try and kick my attackers, hoping that they would let go of me so that I could fight properly. I felt I rush of power go through me and somewhere in the back of my mind I realized that my body must have healed enough for it to accept the changes I went through during my training in the spirit world.

I smiled in a way that spoke of close I was to the edge of insanity, my eyes wide open and unseeing as I fought with renewed strength and when my foot connected with something hard, most likely someone´s jaw, the hold on my right arm loosened enough for me to break free. I used my right hand to form a fist and struck at my left side but before my fist could connect with something another person wrapped himself around my body, making it impossible for me to move a single inch.

"Let me go!" I growled at the person holding me but I was ignored as he spoke with the other people in the room, telling them to leave. I assume that they obeyed him because next he turned his full attention on me, speaking words of comfort in my ear.

And slowly the remains of the nightmare were washed away, and reality took its place. And when I realized what I had done, that I had fought against Bickslow and Evergreen as they tried to help me, I once again broke down crying and Laxus allowed me to cry into his chest as he stroked my back comfortingly.

x-X-x

I must have fallen asleep again for a little while because the next time I opened my eyes my head was resting on Laxus broad chest and one of his arms were slung over my waist, keeping me close to him. I could tell that the others were back because they were talking quietly amongst themselves. Then I remembered what had happened and feelings of shame and self-hate washed over me. How could I ever look at them again? Knowing that I had hurt at least one of them when they were only trying to help me.

I let out a small whimper and the hand that were resting on my hip moved to stroke my back again before a deep rumbling in the chest I was using as a pillow indicated that Laxus was about to speak.

"How are you feeling Blondie?" His words caught the attention of the others and they all looked in my direction. I felt their eyes on me and looked up at them for a moment before hiding myself in Laxus chest again. Normally I would have been mortally embarrassed by being so close to Laxus since we didn´t really know each other that well but thankfully the embarrassment never came.

I was so ashamed over myself that I was feeling nauseous, during my quick glance up I had seen a dark purple bruise on Bickslows jaw and I felt so bad about it that I didn´t know what to do with myself.

"Blondie?" Laxus inquired again and I tried to draw my knees up against my chest to make myself smaller but he wouldn´t let me. Instead he sat up and pulled me with him, my back against his chest.

Evergreen came up and sat in front of me on the bed but I didn´t look at her, I could only see the bruise on Bickslows jaw. It had to hurt… Evergreen snapped her fingers in front of my face and I flinched before focusing on her. She looked at me worriedly but then smiled gently at me and pulled me from Laxus warmth into her own embrace and her arms came around me to hold me close.

The simple, kind gesture broke my resolve to not cry anymore and as I sobbed into her shoulder I felt myself get a little lighter, the burden of being betrayed wasn´t quite so heavy to bear.

I felt another hand land on my shoulder and looked up to see Freed smiling gently at me, my gaze then moved to Bickslow who stood a few feet away as if he was afraid that his mere presence would make things worse. When I saw the uncertainty in his eyes I pulled away from Evergreen to stand up and abandon the comfort of the bed. I took one step and then another in Bickslows direction before launching myself at him.

My arms wrapped around his middle and my face was buried in his chest, he clearly wasn´t used to hugging but I refused to let go and eventually his arms came around me to hold me. I looked up at his face and said.

"I´m sorry! I´m so, so sorry…" Then I hid myself against his chest again and another few tears left my eyes. I was feeling lousy, both for hurting him and for crying all the time but I knew from experience that I would feel better faster if I didn´t lock my feelings away.

A heavy hand landed on top of my head and I looked up to see that Laxus was standing next to me; it was his hand resting on my head.

"Come on Blondie, we need to have a talk." He told me and I simply nodded and went to sit down in one of the couches. He said a few words to the Raijinshuu before joining me and with my new, improved hearing I could hear that he had asked them to go out and buy whatever I might need for the next few days at least as well as some dinner for us all since it was starting to get rather late.

"What did you want to talk about?" I asked him while rubbing at my red and puffy eyes when the rest of the Raijinshuu had left the room.

"I talked with gramps, I told him we found you and that you were alive. I also told him not to tell anyone else and that I would stay in touch." He told me matter-of-factly and while one part of me got scared now that yet another person knew what had happened to me, I also understood the need for the Master to know. I looked at Laxus and saw that he was keeping a close watch of me, clearly expecting me to have another freak out.

"I only told him what he needed to know Lucy, and he understands why he can´t tell anyone else yet. I also told him that we wouldn´t be back for a few weeks so you´ll have time to recover." I nodded and said.

"Thank you… But that´s not the only thing you wanted to talk to me about is it?" He shook his head and gave me a small smile.

"You´re right, there´s more we need to talk about but first I have a very serious question that I need you to answer truthfully, that´s partly why I had the others leave us. Did they rape you?" He looked at me dead serious and I could see both fear that they had and hope that they hadn´t in his eyes and in the tenseness of his shoulders.

"No they didn´t. A few of them tried but the leader always made them stop, telling them that the spell might fail if they did that… so they let me be." I could see how some of the tension left Laxus shoulders at my answer and he released a breath I hadn´t known he was holding in one long exhale.

"Thank god for small favors…" He muttered under his breath before focusing on me again. "Then let´s move to another subject, what do you want to do now?" I simply looked at him blinking every once in a while but found no voice to even try and answer his question with. He noticed my struggle and rephrased his question.

"Do you want to go back to the guild, to your own apartment?" I immediately shook my head no, I couldn´t do that, I had no privacy even in my own home…

"Then do you want to stay with us for a while? We can take a few missions so the others at the guild doesn´t question why we haven´t come home, only Master needs to know what we´re doing." He offered and I looked at him with wonder in my eyes.

"I can stay with you guys? Really? I´m not going to be a bother because I´m weak?" The last sentence really showed how much insecurities I carried with me despite (or maybe thanks to) my time with team Natsu.

"Of course you can stay with us, you were the first one to forgive us after the fantasia incident and for that we are really grateful, besides, you are nakama and I know that all of us would like to get to know you better." He moved to sit next to me on the couch instead of on the other one, facing me and said. "Who´s the idiot who told you that you were weak? Had you been weak you never would have survived through the chaos we´ve been through the last few years. Just because you´re not as destructive as the others in team Natsu doesn´t it mean that you´re weak. You fight smart and with strategy instead of pure, physical power, you can even have three zodiac spirits out at the same time and from the little I know about celestial magic that requires quite a bit of magical strength and deep reserves." He told me and I was more surprised that he knew about how celestial magic worked than that he didn´t think I was weak.

"No one has actually said to my face that I´m weak but everyone implies it… Like when I tried to go on a solo mission to get enough money for my rent and wasn´t allowed because they didn´t think I could handle it without my team…"

"Idiots… All of them are idiots…" I heard him mumble under his breath before he spoke up again. "Well you aren't weak, I wouldn´t have let you stay with us if you were, it would be too dangerous. But there´s another thing I`m wondering about… and that is how did your body change so much? You were only sleeping for god´s sake!" I looked down at my body and realized that he was right, the pulse I felt before had been the changes from my time in the spirit world to appear. I was more toned than before; I had more strength, more agility, more speed and more magical power.

"Ah yeah about that… When Loke and the others pulled my spirit from my body and into their world I couldn´t go back into my body until it had healed enough, which would be seven days in this world. But in their world, those seven days was one year and three months because it was only my spirit that was pulled there. I used the time there to train so that I wouldn´t be weak anymore, so… so that I could show Natsu that I would be fine on my own… And when I returned to my body I needed a little more time to heal before the changes to my body could happen. I still have all the knowledge from my time in the spirit world but other than that it mostly seems like a dream…" I trailed off, remembering the good times I had had with my spirit friends.

"Wow that´s awesome… I wish I could go away and train like that…" Laxus said absent-mindedly and I giggled at him. Suddenly the door opened and the others returned from their shopping. Evergreen held up a few bags of clothes and gestured towards the bathroom. I followed her happily, glad to have clothes that were my own again and I was pleasantly surprised to see that everything was in the correct size. I wondered how she had done that but figured that she had checked the clothes I was wearing before.

She had gotten me several new outfits and while they wasn´t the same style that I wore before, neither was I the same and I liked my new look very much. I put on a pair of black skinny jeans and topped it off with a dark red tank top with a plunging neckline. A pair of brown, low-heeled boots encased my feet and reached to right below my knees and I transferred my black belt holding my whip and keys from my old outfit to my new one. There was even a red ribbon to go in my hair and a black leather jacket to top off the ensemble.

"Thank you Evergreen, these clothes are lovely."

"Call me Ever Lucy, we´re friends now, right?" She said a little hesitantly, as if she was afraid I was going to reject her friendship.

"Of course we´re friends Ever! Don´t doubt that anymore, please? I consider all of you friends and I hope that we can get to know each other better now." I told her and the wicked smile she sent my way let me know that she felt the same and that she had a plan to let me get to know them better.

"How do you feel about a little drinking game tonight then? We could play 'I have never'… But only if you feel up to it of course, otherwise we can do it another night." She reassured me and I smiled at her and told her honestly.

"Perhaps not tonight… But in a few days I should be able to drink without a mental breakdown and we can play 'I have never' then. Tonight I would just rather relax and take it easy, perhaps visit the baths…" Ever nodded encouragingly and agreed with me.

"Yeah, a good soak might not be a bad idea. Let´s grab some dinner and see if the guys want to join us in the baths later." I nodded and after putting all my new things away, we joined the guys on the two couches and dug into our food.

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><p>Please let me know what you think! Love C<p> 


	4. New friends?

I do not own Fairy Tail.

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><p><strong>AN: <strong>Sorry for the wait guys but I had to go over to my parents house for a few days and make christmas cookies and christmas candy. Forgive me?

* * *

><p><strong>A new Lucy<strong>

_Chapter Four – New Friends_

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><p>"So, who wants to come with me and Lucy to the baths?" Ever asked the others after we had finished eating and were just sitting around.<p>

"I will accompany you." Freed answered in his usual, formal style of talking while Bickslow and Laxus only made grunting noises that could mean anything but Ever seemed to translate it to that they too were coming with us.

Ever gathered us a few necessary items in a bag before grasping my arm and more or less dragging me down to the baths. We entered the women's changing room and she gave me a light purple bikini to change into while she changed into one that was blue. We then locked our stuff inside a small cabinet, grabbed our towels and walked out to the large pool of heated water that were calling us.

I was not surprised to see that the guys were already in the water, I was however surprised that we were the only ones visiting the baths tonight. But I didn´t think much about it and instead put my towel down before slowly lowering myself into the hot water with a contended sigh. The hot water felt heavenly against my tired and slightly aching body.

"Feel good yeah?" A distinctively male voice asked me and I opened my eyes to see who it was while responding.

"Yeah… it really helps loosen up the muscles. I was tenser than I realized." Bickslow stood in front of me, the water reaching up to about an inch or so below his belly button. I could tell that he wore dark red swimsuits and that he had more muscles than I had first believed, he hid some impressive strength underneath his clothes. And after a quick look at the green haired male in our company I could tell that so did Freed. Apparently Laxus were the only one who didn´t care that he showed off his own bulging muscles.

Ever sank into the water next to me and gave me a playful wink before saying.

"You should help her out Bicks; give her one of your famous backrubs." A faint blush dusted my cheeks at her suggestion but Bickslow only grinned at me at raised a single eyebrow as he waited for me to give my response.

"That would be great, but only if you don´t mind?" I said and looked up at him, feeling a little shy. I didn´t want him to do it because he felt he had to.

"Of course I don´t mind, move over cosplayer and I´ll give you a good rub." I blushed harder and both he and Ever let out a chuckle as I moved and turned to the side so that he would fit behind me.

Then his hands landed on my shoulders and I found myself in total and complete bliss. He skillfully kneaded my sore muscles and the longer he kept it up, the more relaxed I became. But when his talented fingers brushed the slightly raised scars that now covered a good part of my back, I drew in a quick breath and tensed up again, expecting him to pull away from me. But he only froze in his movements, his hands still on my back and he asked me worriedly.

"Did I hurt you?" I turned so that I could look at him from the corner of my eye and told him.

"No… But are you really okay with touching the scars? I expected you to flinch away…" I kept my head tilted down and therefore didn´t see the looks that the Raijinshuu exchanged over my head.

"Why would I do that? All of us have scars cosplayer." Bickslow told me and gently turned me back into my former position, his hands once again started moving across the expanse of my back, slowly loosening up my muscles again.

While he was massaging my back I thought about what he had said, that all of them had scars and I realized that my scars really was no different than the ones they carried. Mine were only larger and more eye catching but there really was no reason for anyone to freak out at the sight of them. Another piece of the burden I carried broke off and I felt even lighter than before.

I slowly leaned back, trusting Bickslow to support me and told him 'thank you' in a low voice. I felt his chest rumble as he gave a mumbled response and I couldn´t help but giggle. Apparently Bickslow got embarrassed with the lack of space between us but I didn´t let that bother me; I was really relaxed and comfortable.

I must have fallen asleep for a little while because the next time I opened my eyes almost an hour had passed and we were about to head back to our room. I reluctantly left the water and followed after Evergreen to have a quick shower and change into our PJ: s before going back up to the room and settling in for the night.

I entered the room yawning and didn´t see where I was going so I tripped and would have hit the floor hard unless a muscled arm had sneaked its way around my middle, keeping me on my feet. I looked up to see Laxus towering figure right next to me and I gave him a grateful smile and said quietly.

"Thank you Laxus."

"Don´t worry about it Blondie, just be careful will you? I promised gramps that I would look after you." He told me in his usual gruff voice but I knew he cared more than he let on and that the gruff voice only was a way to keep others at a distance.

I managed to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth and then get myself into bed without any further incidents. The others had agreed on that Ever and I would share one bed and that Laxus and Bickslow shared the other while Freed took the couch. Both Laxus and Bickslow had offered to sleep on the couch but Freed had simply told them that they were both taller than he was and therefore would not fit on the couch. I felt bad about it but there really was nothing I could do so I lied down on the bed and within minutes I was asleep.

x-X-x

The next morning I woke up really early, though it wasn´t very surprising since I had spent a lot of the day before sleeping. At first I thought that no one else was awake but after dressing myself in the same outfit as yesterday in the bathroom, I reentered the other room only to notice that Freed wasn´t on the couch as he was supposed to be.

"Freed?" I called out in a voice that was no more than a whisper since I didn´t want to wake the others. He didn´t answer and I couldn´t find him anywhere in the room so I left the others a note and went out to search for the currently missing member of the Raijinshuu.

I went back down to the baths that we visited last night, the restaurant and the bar in the lobby but I couldn´t find Freed anywhere. When I ran out of places to search in on the ground floor I went to the roof to see if he was there. It was a chance on my part since I couldn´t come up with a reason for him to be on the roof but I decided to go and look there anyway just to be sure.

But when I opened the door to the roof, the first thing I laid my eyes on was Freed. He was sitting and leaning against the wall with a thick book in his hands and another pile of books next to him. He hadn´t heard me enter the roof and I smiled at seeing how peaceful he looked sitting like that.

"There you are." I said quietly as to not startle him before walking over and sitting down next to him. "I´ve looked all over for you, you know." He looked up from his book and seemed surprised to see me.

"Forgive me Lucy, had I known that you too were an early riser I would have left you a note. Usually I am the only one awake at this hour… Did you need me for something?"

"No I just got worried when I couldn´t find you… What are you reading?" I asked him, curious about the amount of books he had surrounded himself with.

"I am trying to learn more about the lykans disease; I want to gather as much knowledge as possible in case we run into it again. I am also trying to read up on celestial magic, if you are going to stay with us for a while I want to know more about the magic that you use." He explained while continuing to read, apparently he knew how to multitask…

"Oh, that´s good I guess. If there´s anything you want to know about my magic you just have to ask though." I told him and gave him a small smile that gave him a faint blush decorating his cheeks.

"I might take you up on that at a later time, for now let us go back down to the room. The other´s should be waking up soon and we have to decide where to go to next." He said after getting his blush under control. He then stood up and gathered up his books, holding them with one hand while offering the other one to me to help me up. I accepted his help and the two of us quickly made our way back down to the room.

The others had just woken up and were just about to order us breakfast when Freed and I returned.

"Hey cosplayer what do you want for breakfast?" Bickslow asked, apparently he was charged with getting us breakfast from the restaurant downstairs.

"Chocolate chip pancakes? Unless it´s too much trouble…"

"No trouble." Bickslow promised me before going down to place our order. Laxus were sitting on one bed, pulling on his boots while Ever gathered her things for a shower. Freed sat down in one of the couches with his books, glancing longingly at them but knowing there was no point in opening them until after we had talked. Bickslow wasn´t gone long and when he returned Laxus knocked on the door to bathroom to let Ever know that the breakfast was here before he too sat down to eat and talk. We ate in silence, Evergreen joining us about ten minutes later, but when the food was mostly gone Laxus leaned back and locked his intense gaze on me.

"What do you want to do Blondie?" I blinked once and after a nervous look at the others asked him.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you want to go home to Magnolia? Do you want to go somewhere else? Do you want to do nothing or do you want to come with us for a few missions?" He inquired and I shot the others another nervous look before asking.

"What do you guys want to do?"

"This is not about what we want; this is about what you want Lucy. We are fine with whatever you wish to do." Freed told me seriously and both Evergreen and Bickslow nodded in agreement. I thought for a moment before hesitantly speaking again.

"Then I would like to visit my parent´s grave… after that we can do a couple of missions if you want, I just want to stay away from the guild until I have come to terms with everything. It would be nice if I could find a new key or two as well…"

"Then we´ll work something out, we can stay in Gramps house at the border of Magnolia down at the sea. We can take a mission that will take us close to your parent´s grave so you can visit them and then you can come with us on missions for a while. It will probably be good for you to get an opportunity to use your new skills in battle." Laxus proposed and since the others of the Raijinshuu didn´t have any disagreements, it was decided.

A few hours later we boarded the train that would take us as close to the Master´s vacation home as possible. Laxus had used the communications lacrima to tell him about our plans and he had indeed given us permission to use his house. He was going to get back to us with a mission when something good showed up on the board so for now at least we were free to do whatever.

We had gotten a private compartment since Laxus like all the other dragon slayers suffered from motion sickness. He wasn´t as bad as Natsu thankfully but he preferred to be able to sleep the trip away thus paying for a private compartment. Freed was sitting next to Laxus, a book in hand and Bickslow and Ever were sitting on either side of me on the seat across from them.

Laxus was leaning against the window, his sound pods on and the volume turned up so that we wouldn´t wake him by mistake. Bickslow was checking his babies for damage that would need to be fixed before the next mission and Ever reading a fashion magazine to try and entertain herself. I was lost in thoughts and was fiddling with my keys. Ever shot a look at me from above her magazine and asked curiously.

"How many keys do you have?" I stopped fiddling and looked up to meet her eyes as I answered her.

"Sixteen for now, ten golden zodiac keys and six silver keys. I hope to find more of them though, when I was in the spirit world the king told me about five keys called 'animal kingdom keys'. Apparently they can hide their keys from those they deem unworthy of them but the king thinks that I might be able to contract with them. I learned how to use my own magic to search for keys hidden in our world so hopefully I will find at least some of them…" I mused. The next one to speak up was Freed and he apparently remembered my earlier promise that if he wanted to know something about my magic he only had to ask.

"I know that it takes much more magic than most realize when summoning your spirits but how much is it really?" I had to think for a little bit before answering his question, having to think about something that I could compare it to.

"Well it´s a little difficult to know exactly but I think that opening a golden gate would be somewhat equal to half a dragon´s roar. It doesn´t take much magic to keep the gates open though but the more magic strength I have the stronger is my spirits. When they use their attacks it is actually mostly my magic that is being used and only about one quarter of their own. I meditate every morning to keep expanding my magic reserves so that my spirits can be stronger." I hoped that my answer would satisfy Freed´s curiosity for a while because the steady movements of the train had just about lulled me to sleep and I leaned back into the seat and closed my eyes, falling asleep within minutes.

The house that rested on the cliffs overlooking the ocean was not what I had expected. The side facing the oceans was completely made of glass, giving an amazing view of the restless waters below. The floors were made of wood that was so pale in color that it almost looked like the pale, fine sand on the beach outside. The walls were a creamy white and the one color that could be found except for the natural pale wood and white was a pale blue that connected everything nicely. Giving life to the otherwise rather sterile environment.

On the ground floor was a large kitchen with professional appliances and an even larger living room that had everything we could wish for. There was also a bathroom. On the upper floor were enough bedrooms to fit all of us as well as two more bathrooms. Ever quickly disappeared inside one of the bathrooms, telling us that she was going to take a bath and that she was not to be disturbed. Freed also went for a shower while Bickslow went to take a nap before dinner that Laxus was left to make.

I wasn´t sure what I wanted to do so I followed Laxus inside the kitchen, hoping that I might be able to help him. After all, I was used to feed my entire team all the time while the Raijinshuu took turns.

Laxus agreed to let me help and while we worked on the food, we talked. Mostly about unimportant things but also a bit about what I had experienced during my time in captivity. And I found that talking to Laxus really helped.

"All I could think about while chained to that wall was how could Natsu just leave me? I can´t wrap my mind around it. I get that he´s happy that Lisanna is back and that he is protective of her and doesn´t want to lose her but how could he abandon me so easily?"

"I don´t have an answer for that Blondie, all I know that it isn´t like Natsu at all. I have a feeling that something is off about all this, maybe everything isn´t what it seems with Natsu and Lisanna? I don´t know what it could be though but it could be worth looking into when we get back…"

"I don´t know what it could be either… But I´d rather find something off about them than having to accept that Lisanna was jealous enough of mine and Natsu´s friendship to want me dead and Natsu not caring enough to save me…" I replied, tears gathering in my eyes and stinging when I refused to let them fall.

I looked dejectedly down at the floor, wishing that this whole nightmare was over and done with already. I felt hurt and betrayed by Natsu and Lisanna and I was afraid of everyone´s reactions when we returned back to the guild. How would they take the news that I was still alive and what would they say about my changes? Would Erza and Gray want me back on team Natsu? Could I ever go back to being on a team at all after being betrayed like that? Would I want to?

Suddenly large arms wrapped around my smaller frame and Laxus hugged me tightly against him briefly for a moment before letting go and returning to the stove. He shot me a look from the corner of his eye and told me softly.

"Don´t worry so much, I´m sure that everything will work out eventually." And despite his rough attitude I felt comforted by his words.

x-X-x

A few hours later the house was dark and quiet and I was supposed to be sleeping but I found myself unable to do so. I had too many thoughts running through my head to be able to go to sleep. I sat on the bed in my pajamas which were a pair of black silk boxers and a t-shirt that was way too big for me. Virgo had brought me these clothes and I liked them, they were very comfortable but I wondered where she had gotten them from since they held no traces of celestial magic. I was sitting there, pondering everything that kept spinning in my head when a rich golden light lit up the room and within the blink of an eye, my spirit Loke showed up.

"Princess! Are you alright? We felt your distress through our keys…" He said and kneeled in front of me so that he could see my face. I looked up at him with weary eyes and said.

"I´m fine Loke… I just have a lot on my mind…"

"Please tell me then princess, perhaps I can be of help." He said to me and even took off his blue tinted glasses so that I could see the worry in his eyes. He was as usual dressed in a black suit and in his wild orange-red hair was his cat-like ears almost hidden. I let one hand stroke hi hair for a moment before I spoke again.

"It´s just… I´m scared of what´s going to happen when I have to go back. I really enjoy hanging out with the Raijinshuu like this but I know it can´t last. Will Erza and Gray want me back on team Natsu? Do I even want to be on a team again after this? And what will everyone say? Will they believe my story or will they take Natsu and Lisanna´s side? What will they say about my changes? I just… I just don´t know if I can do that…" I said, for the first time admitting that I might not want to go back.

"Whatever happens you will always have us by your side. It is up to you to decide what you want to do but I think you should go back to the guild at least for a little while and then you can leave if they react badly but at least then you will know for sure." I nodded and pulled him in for a quick hug before releasing him and saying.

"I can do that, I think…" I promised and he gave me a smile that was quickly wiped away as he spoke again.

"About Natsu and Lisanna… I think there´s something going on there. There was a faint trace of unknown magic surrounding them during the last mission. Crux and I are trying to find out more but I want you to keep in mind that there might be a reason for what they did to you and it might not be the obvious one that Lisanna wanted you out of the way because of jealousy and Natsu choosing her over you. There might be something else…" As I listened to Loke´s words the more the idea that something was wrong with them seemed correct. That would explain how Natsu could abandon me so easily, something he would never do.

"You might be right… But until I know for certain I will not forgive him. I… I´m not sure I can forgive him for this…" I admitted and hid my face in my hands. Loke´s hands landed on my shoulders and he gently pushed me down until I was lying down on the bed, he then pulled the covers over me and lay down behind me, pulling me towards him until my back met with his front. Then he said.

"I´m not asking you to forgive him, but I know you and I can almost guarantee that you will forgive him, eventually. For now though, try to get some sleep. You need it princess." And with Loke´s comforting presence at my back I allowed sleep to take me over and for a short time, take me away from all of my troubles.

The next few days were calm and the stillness and tranquility that surrounded me worked as a balm for my soul. The last of my wounds healed up and only the scars remained. Every morning I went outside to sit on the beach while meditating and every afternoon I would call out Loke and Capricorn to help me train. I felt like while strengthening my body, I was also strengthening my soul.

The more time I spent with the Raijinshuu, the more I enjoyed it. Sure they bickered like anyone else but there was also this bond that kept them as close as family, even more so than the guild at large despite it being something we were famous for. And I found myself envious of that bond, while I considered Gray and Natsu as brothers and Erza, Levy and Wendy as sisters we didn´t have the same bond that the Raijinshuu had.

Laxus, while rough on the outside really had a soft core and a caring personality. He cared for his team and made sure that they all had what they needed. I learned that when Evergreen had broken up with a cheating boyfriend he had spent an entire night watching over her, lending her a shoulder to cry on and eating ice cream with her.

I learned that the reason Freed looked up to Laxus so much was because he had saved his life once and that while the guild thought that Laxus had learned to live with Freed´s behavior, he really saw Freed as a younger brother.

And when he met Bickslow for the first time when they were younger, he stood up for him against a couple of adult males that were about to beat him up simply because he was different and they felt threatened by his babies and dark red eyes that glowed a bright green when he involuntary used his figure eyes. Laxus then helped him train so that he could control his powers before bringing him with him to Fairy Tail. But the damage had already been done and he refused to be among other people without his metal visor protecting his eyes from being seen.

All of them were there for each other unconditionally and that was something I longed to experience myself. But I doubted that I would be able to trust another person again to that degree and that thought made me sad…

The Raijinshuu always included me in whatever they decided to do to pass the time but most of the times I declined and instead watched them from a distance. I felt the need to keep everyone at arm's length so that I wouldn´t be hurt again. I could tell that they were worried about me but I knew that if I opened up to them, it would only hurt more later when I had to leave them.

I didn´t actually want to leave them, but I knew I would have to. They had their own team and I had too much baggage…

I was distracted from my depressing thoughts when Laxus communications lacrima lit up and Master´s voice came through.

"Laxus my boy how are you? Everything alright I hope? I found a mission for you that meets your requirements, it´s a small mining village that are having trouble with some kind of monster in their mines. The mission is S-class but shouldn´t be more than you can handle, I have faith in you all."

"Thanks Gramps, we´ll head out tomorrow then." Laxus responded before turning the communications lacrima off. We were all sitting in the kitchen, eating dinner and after the food was gone Laxus ordered us all to head to bed early so that we could take the first train out in the morning. But when we stood up to leave he asked me to stay behind for a moment. First when we were alone in the kitchen did he open his mouth to speak.

"How do you feel about this mission? Do you want to join us or will you wait for us in the mining village as we take care of the monster?" I thought about his question seriously before answering, would I be able to join them on the mission without putting them in danger? If I froze up in fear because a bad memory resurfaced that would be really bad.

But I had worked with my spirits daily so that I would be able to do missions again and just as Loke had predicted, I was healing from the events that went down in the basement faster than I would have expected. Natsu abandoning me was still bothering me of course but I had a feeling that it would do so until I could get some answers to my question why. I had adapted to my new, improved senses so there shouldn´t be anything holding me back from joining them on the mission.

"I´d like to join you… If you don´t think I will cause trouble that is." I told him timidly and fidgeted with my keys.

"No I don´t think you will cause any trouble, I just don´t want you to feel pressured to joining us if you´re not ready." He told me while preparing to do the dishes.

"Oh… well then I´d like to join you." I said while grabbing a towel to help him dry the dishes. We worked in silence until the dishes were done and then we bid each other good night and returned to our bedrooms.

Tomorrow I would get to visit my parent's grave.

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><p>Let me know what you guys think! Love C<p> 


	5. The first animal kingdom key, Phoenix

I do not own Fairy Tail.

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><p><strong>A new Lucy<strong>

_Chapter Five – The first animal kingdom key, Phoenix_

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><p>We left early the next morning, almost before the sun had even peeked above the horizon and boarded the train that would take us to our destination. I hadn´t said a word all morning but I often got sad when I was about to visit my parents grave, I usually felt a lot better afterwards though. The others were excited about the mission but understood my need for silence so they let me be.<p>

The train ride only took about an hour and a half and from the station it was only a thirty minute walk so it wasn´t long before we reached the gates of the cemetery which was our first destination. The other stopped at the gate and told me that they´d wait for me there.

I smiled at the kind gesture of privacy they were showing me, had I gone here with team Natsu they would most likely have followed me to the grave. And normally I wouldn´t mind but today I felt the need to go there alone.

I promised them that I wouldn´t take too long but they only told me to take my time and then I started walking down the familiar path to their gravestones. Soon the familiar stones were in my sight and I sank to my knees in front of them, putting the flowers I had gotten earlier on top of their graves.

"Hello mom, dad, sorry it´s been so long since my last visit… A lot has happened and I could really use your advice…" I whispered to the gravestones as a tear trickled down my cheek.

"Team Natsu and Lisanna went on a mission and things went badly… Natsu and Lisanna let me be taken by our enemies and I spent a month in captivity before Laxus and his team rescued me. I changed after that…" I sat in silence for a while and simply let the tears of hurt and betrayal fall from my eyes until I ran out of them. Then a warm breeze caressed my face and my heart felt lighter. It felt like the caresses my mother used to give me when I was younger and I suddenly got the strength to stand up and keep moving. I stood up and spoke to the graves.

"Thanks mom, I needed that… I will not let this break me. I will find out if there´s something wrong with Natsu that caused him to leave me like that." I promised them and another wind, stronger than the first one blew my hair around and I felt a small smile stretch my lips.

I could do this, I was a strong celestial mage like my mother and I was resilient like my father. With that I turned my back to my parent´s resting place and walked back to the others, we had a monster to take care of after all.

The others greeted me with smiles and thankfully didn´t comment on my slightly red and puffy eyes. We walked back to the train station and boarded the train that would take us directly to the mining village that had asked for our help. When we reached the small town it was already afternoon and we went directly to the mayor's office to hopefully get more information about our mission.

As soon as we left the train station I noticed that people were watching me and particularly my wolf-looking eye with fear and unease in their own eyes. I turned my eyes towards the ground and simply followed the backs of team Raijinshuu instead of looking around. I couldn´t help that my eye had changed but I still didn´t want people to look at me like that…

"Don´t mind them cosplayer, try and ignore them." Bickslow told me suddenly, having slowed down so that he walked next to me when he noticed my mood dropping. I only nodded, keeping my eyes on the ground despite his encouraging words and kept walking. I heard him sigh but he didn´t say anything else, he too knew how much the reactions of other people could hurt.

But when we reached the mayor´s office and even he flinched back when he met my eyes I had enough and told the others quietly that I would wait for them in the hotel and that they could tell me what they learned later. Then I turned on my heel and walked back outside.

I kept my left eye closed the entire way to the hotel and until I got up to the room I was going to share with Evergreen. The guy got the room next door which was connected to our room with a sliding wall. I sat down on the bed and called out Virgo by just touching her key and thinking that I wanted her to come out.

"Punishment time princess?" She asked me as usual but I only shook my head no and asked her.

"Not this time Virgo, do you have something that I can use to cover up my eye with so that others don´t have to see it but that will still allow me to see through it? I want to be able to use my eye but I can´t stand the looks that everyone are giving me…"

"I see… I think I have something that can help you then, I´ll be right back." She told me and disappeared in a golden light only to reappear again only seconds later.

"Here princess." She said and handed me a black bandanna with a few sparkly stones sewn into the fabric that glimmered like stars when light hit them.

"Use it like a headband and pull it down to cover your eye when you feel the need to, the fabric is see-through from your side so you will be able to see perfectly fine even with it covering your eye." She explained to me and I smiled at her and told her thank you before she went back to the spirit world again. I quickly tied the headband in place and looked at myself in the mirror; the headband was really beautiful… It covered my eye but I could still see perfectly fine just as Virgo had promised, it didn´t cover my scar though but that didn´t bother me. It was my eye that gathered the most attention.

The others return soon after that and they all shot me worried glances when they saw that I had covered up my eye. They didn´t say anything about it though and instead relayed the information given to them by the mayor.

It was their biggest and deepest mine that had the monster problem and while they didn´t know what kind of creature it was, they were certain that there was no more than two of them. The Mission reward was 2 million jewel as well as two celestial keys which immediately peaked my interest, the others could keep the money if I could have the gate keys.

We ordered some food and while eating we discussed what kind of monster we might face in the mine tomorrow.

"It could be an ogre or some kind of Vulcan… Worst case scenario would be facing off with a wyvern though…" Freed mused and while I have heard of and met with both ogres and Vulcans before, I had never heard about wyverns.

"What´s a wyvern?" I asked him and he immediately started explaining them to me.

"They have their origin among the dragons but they are much smaller, perhaps about ten meters long? They have wings and can fly but spend a lot of their time on the ground. They can breathe fire and their bites are poisonous, they have really sharp claws and spikes at the end of their tails. Usually they live deep in the forests or in mountain caves but when they are about to have younglings they prefer to seek shelter inside deep caves, mines or other tunnels that go deep enough. That´s when they are the most dangerous and if we are really unlucky both the mother and her mate will be there. Wyverns with young are almost as hard to take down as dragons."

I filed all that information away in my head and as the hours passed by, I started to get excited for the mission tomorrow.

The morning after I dressed in black skinny jeans, my brown boots and a light grey tank top with my black leather jacket on top. Even if it was hot outside it would be chilly inside the mine.

We ate breakfast and then we left, following the well-used trail that led us to the entrance of the mine that was having troubles. I checked my belt to make sure that my keys and my whip were secured properly and then I turned towards Laxus who was about to speak.

"Okay guys let´s try and stick together in there, no one goes off on their own. Be careful and look out for each other, now let´s do this." His pep-talk was short but to the point and when he walked inside the mine, the rest of us followed. Laxus would have no trouble seeing in the dark because of his heightened dragon senses and Freed could use his dark écriture to see in the dark. I quickly discovered that I too could see perfectly fine in the dark even with the bandanna over my eye. Evergreen and Bickslow were having trouble though so Laxus kept a small lightning current on his skin, lighting up the immediate area around us.

The further inside the mine we walked, the more things I noticed that were off. For once, it became hotter and not colder as it should have. There were also faint noises that kept coming from different directions, as if something were following us. And there was a strange scent in the air that I couldn´t place.

I could smell iron and earth from the mine itself, the scent of a flowery perfume and clean laundry coming from Evergreen, the scent of books and ink and a minty freshness from Freed. Wood oil and spices from Bickslow as well as the scent of cinnamon, sandalwood and the air right before a storm coming from Laxus. But there was also an acid tint in the air that made me want to wrinkle my nose that I couldn´t place…

"Laxus what is this acid tint in the air? It irritates my nose…" I asked him quietly and he inclined his head in my direction and asked.

"You smell it too?"

"Yeah…"

"I´m not entirely sure what it is but I guess it could be the poison wyverns create in their mouths…" Just as he finished the sentence we reached a large cave where the acid scent was even stronger. The sound of something big moving in our direction reached us and we all took our fighting stances to be ready. But then a roar echoed throughout the cave and caused us to lose out balance and the tunnel behind us to cave in.

I heard both Bickslow and Laxus swear when the creature finally made itself known to us as it entered the cave from a tunnel at the other end of it. It was a wyvern and judging by the sounds that only Laxus and I could hear there would soon be two of them.

"Dammit why couldn´t it have been a Vulcan instead?" Laxus said exasperated and took his fighting stance once more.

"Be careful there´s another one on the way." I warned the others and Laxus shot me an impressed look before he turned his attention back to the wyvern in front of us and started barking out orders.

"Freed put up some runes so that it can´t escape, Lucy watch his back he´s defenseless while writing the runes, Bickslow, Ever with me!" everyone sprang into action and Laxus used a lightning dragons roar to stun the wyvern while Bickslow and his babies performed 'baryam formation' to hopefully wound it. Evergreen used her fairy magic to try and find wyvern's weak spot and Freed used his sword to write runes with impressive speed.

I had one hand hovering over my keys and the other hand hovering above my whip so that I was prepared to act in the blink of an eye should I need to. I wanted to help the others fight the wyvern but didn´t know which spirit to call on. Loke and Capricorn were both excellent at close range but the wyvern was probably too big for them. Taurus and Sagittarius both used weapons but I didn´t know if they could pierce the thick scales of a wyvern.

"Open! Gate of the golden bull, Taurus! Open! Gate of the archer, Sagittarius!" I called out and in twin showers of golden light, they appeared.

"Taurus! use your axe, try and find a weak spot, perhaps its belly. Sagittarius, aim for its eyes." I ordered them and after their usual greetings and promises of protection they went to work. I kept one eye at the fight in front of us and another eye at our surroundings, they made soo much noise fighting the wyvern that I couldn´t tell from where the other one would show up.

Suddenly a roar that hurt my ears sounded and then the roof of the cave above our heads started to collapse. Letting my instincts take over I grabbed Freed with a hand around his wrist and pulled him with me as I ran to get away from the falling blocks of stone that threatened to crush us. We dove inside another tunnel just as a huge block of stone blocked the opening and sent us into complete darkness once again.

The cavern had been lit up by a few clusters of crystals that glowed in the dark as well as Laxus lighting but now it was pitch black again and despite my ability to see in the dark it took a little while for my eyes to adapt.

"Are you alright Freed?" I asked him when he didn´t say anything.

"Yes I think so… We have to get back to the others but…" He was interrupted by another roar only this time the roar came from somewhere ahead of us. it seemed as if our way back to the others was blocked and the tunnel we were in would lead us to the second wyvern.

"Which wyvern are the others fighting?" I asked him nervously.

"I think it is the mother, I did not get a good look however so I might be wrong."

"Can they take it down? Since I´m not hurt Taurus and Sagittarius should still be helping them fight…"

"They should be able to take it down yes; I am more worried if we can take the other one down but I do not think we have a choice in the matter." Freed said grimly but readied his rapier. During our time at the beach house I had gotten over my fear of swords so thankfully I had no panic attacks now.

We then started to move forwards, slowly and with our senses searching for anything that could be a danger. We didn´t have to walk far before we reached another cave that held the other wyvern just as I had thought. We stopped and held a whispered conversation about how to attack the wyvern to hopefully bring it down.

"Can you write runes to keep it contained in here while I distract it?" I asked and he nodded before starting on the runes. As I ran forward I called out Loke, Cancer and Scorpio to help me fight him while also readying my whip. Scorpio shot a sand blast at its eyes to try and blind it while Loke aimed a regulus punch at its belly and Cancer tried to sever the nerves and muscles in its legs. I wrapped my whip around its throat and swung myself into the air, turning and forming a fist with my hand before falling back down towards its head.

"Celestial punch!" I shouted and gathered my magic around my closed fist. My magic shimmered like stars and would protect my hand as I came down on the wyvern with impressive force. But despite the powerful punch the wyvern didn´t show any signs of having taken any damage.

"Dammit!" I swore as I landed on the ground in a crouch. I locked my hands together with the palms facing outwards and started to gather my magic there. when there was a large ball of pure magic surrounding my hands I shouted.

"Solar Explosion!" And a beam of shimmering light left my hands with enough force to push me backwards. When the beam hit the wyvern a huge explosion rocked the cave and caused a few boulders to come loose from the ceiling. The wyvern roared in pain and then I saw Freed fly past me with his rapier held steady in his hand. He used his wings of darkness to get up to the wyverns head where he started slashing at its eyes.

Suddenly I felt Taurus gate close and realized that he must have been hurt since Sagittarius gate was still open. Then Cancer was hit by our wyvern's tail and was sent back as well. I was panting from the drain on my magic and despite all of my training I knew that I would soon be useless in this fight, we had to take the wyvern down now.

A cry of pain reached my ears and then Freed was crashing into the ground beside me, he too had been hit by the wyverns tail and it looked bad. Blood was pouring from the gaping hole in his side and I ordered Loke and Scorpio to keep the wyvern distracted for me as I started to chant.

_Survey the Heavens, Open the Heavens..._

_All the stars, far and wide..._

_Show me thy appearance..._

_With such shine._

_Oh Tetrabiblos..._

_I am the ruler of the stars..._

_Aspect become complete..._

_Open thy malevolent gate._

_Oh 88 Stars of the heaven..._

_Shine!_

**_Urano Metria!_**

The 88 balls of light hit the wyvern with devastating force and I realized with rising panic that the entire cavern was about to collapse in on us since my earlier attack had weakened its structure.

"Open! Gate of the shield, Scutum!" I called out just as large blocks of stone started falling down. I closed my eyes and leaned over Freed to protect him as I waited for either the stones to hit us or the drain on my magic that meant that Scutum had managed to erect a shield around us in time. Loke and Cancer were sent back and then my magic dropped drastically as the large stones hit the shield above our heads.

I was panting hard, my magic almost depleted. I had to send Sagittarius and Scutum back and as I raised my head to look around I realized that the entire cave was gone, only a small clearing where Scutum´s shield had protected us remained, even the way we had come from was blocked. But as Freed let out a low moan of pain I pushed all thoughts about how we were going to get out of here to the back of my mind so that I could focus on helping him.

Both of us were covered in dust but blood was already washing away the dust from Freeds injured side. Dread filled me as I got a closer look at the wound, he would die unless he got help real soon…

Then hopelessness wanted to overtake me, I had no spirits that could heal… Tears fell from my eyes as I frantically tried to stop the bleeding.

"Do not… cry…Lucy. It will be… alright…" Freed told me with blood trickling from his mouth as he spoke. I wanted to scream at him, yell at him that things would not be alright because he was dying and I couldn´t do a single thing about it. Then something in the corner of my eye caught my attention.

A gate key, made from pure emerald gleamed in the dusty darkness of the cavern, calling for my attention.

I picked it up with my blood stained hands and called out.

"I am linked to the path to the world of Celestial Spirits, now! O spirit, answer my call and pass through the gate! Open! Gate of the phoenix, Fenix!" and immediately the golden light appeared, warning me that a spirit was about to enter this world. And then there he was, a young man with fiery red hair, pale blue eyes and a muscled body clad in red leather pants and a white t-shirt.

"Hello master Lucy, my name is Fenix. I use healing magic, how may I be of service?"

"Please heal Freed!" I begged him with tearful eyes and at seeing my distress, he immediately went to work, holding his hands above the wound in Freeds side and through the pure white light that surrounded his hands, I could see the injury slowly disappear.

When I realized that Freed really would be alright I relaxed a little and told my new spirit.

"Thank you so much for helping me out despite us not having formed a contract yet, I don´t know what I would have done without finding your key here… Was it hidden here? Also, please do not call me master, I´m not your superior we are equals."

"It is no problem; you have a strong and kind heart. Yes, my key was hidden here but you are worthy of it, what should I call you then?"

"Thanks for trusting me Fenix; I swear I will do my best to not make you regret your decision. A few of my other spirits call me princess, otherwise Lucy is perfectly acceptable. Will Freed be alright?" I asked nervously. He looked at me with his pale blue eyes and really took in my weary appearance.

"Your friend will be fine, your magic levels are very low princess, will you be alright?" He asked and stood up, apparently finished with healing Freed.

"Yes, we had to fight a wyvern and I had to use both of my strongest spells and have five of the zodiac keys out at the same time." I reassured him and after he let me know that he was available whenever I or my friends needed healing we formed our contract and he went back to the spirit world.

I looked down at the emerald key in my hand and with a shake of my head I put it on the key ring with the others. I couldn´t believe that I had found one of the five animal kingdom keys…

I was still panting and my entire body ached from my magic levels being too low, I would not be able to call out Virgo to help us out of here but maybe she would come by her own power and help us out…

"Lucy are you alright? What happened?" Freed asked me as he sat up, taking in the destruction around us.

"Thank god you´re alright… how are you feeling?" I asked him, ignoring his own questions for now and hugging him almost desperately.

"I feel fine, what happened?" He asked again and reassured that he really was perfectly fine I started explaining our current situation to him.

"You got hit by the wyvern's tail really bad so I had Loke and Scorpio distract him while I cast 'Urano Metria'. That caused the cave in. I then found my first animal kingdom key, Fenix the phoenix. He healed you." Freed nodded as what I told him was consistent with what his own reasoning told him could have happened.

"Are you alright then? It sounds as if you have trouble breathing and from what I can tell with my eye you are really pale."

"I´m fine Freed, my magic is really low though so I can´t call on Virgo to get us out but once I get some food in me and a good night of sleep I will be good as new again." I reassured him. We sat in silence for a little while, thinking about how to get out of here when Laxus voice seemed to come from a pocket on Freeds jacket. When Freed pulled out a communications lacrima I sighed in relief, now we could tell the others where we were and Laxus could use his lightning teleportation to get us out.

"Freed! Lucy! God dammit answer me!" Laxus voice yelled from the lacrima, the small screen lit up the small space we were trapped in and we could see that Laxus, Bickslow and Evergreen were already back outside.

"We are here Laxus." Freed answered calmly and we could visibly see the others relax, they must have felt it when our cave collapsed and been worried about if we were even alive or not. Wyverns were not something to take lightly.

"Oh thank god… are the two of you okay? What happened?"

"We found the second wyvern but Lucy had to use Urano Metria to take it out and then the cavern collapsed, we are trapped here. I was injured by the wyvern´s tail but Lucy found one of the animal kingdom keys and her new spirit was able to heal me. So I am fine but Lucy suffers from magic depletion and cannot call out Virgo to get us out of here."

"Okay I can work with that, I´ll just use my lightning teleportation to get to you guys and get you out. Is there enough room where you are?"

"Yes you should fit but it will be tight." Freed warned him and then put the communications lacrima away as lighting were already crackling in the air. Freed and I were standing off to the side, him supporting me when Laxus larger frame appeared in our cramped space, grabbed the two of us and teleported back outside.

As soon as we hit the ground I was falling, unable to keep my balance with my tired and aching body, but Bickslows babies shot forward and caught me, pushing me back into an upright position. Then Freed returned to my side, supporting me as the other three just stared at the sorry state we were in. we were covered in dust and blood and I was pale and panting from exhaustion.

But then I smiled widely at them and showed them my new emerald key, telling them happily.

"I found a new key!" Then everything around me turned dark as I succumbed to the dreamless sleep of unconsciousness.

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><p>Let me know what you think! Love C<p> 


	6. Leon the little lion

I do not own Fairy Tail, I just play with them.

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><p><strong>A new Lucy<strong>

_Chapter Six - Leon the little lion_

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><p>When I woke up again it was early morning, but I didn´t know on which day. I might just have slept through the night but it was also possible that several days had passed due to my low magic levels. But know I felt perfectly fine, my magic levels were back to normal and the tiredness was gone. My muscles were a bit tense though, and I was really hungry.<p>

I looked around and quickly notice that I wasn´t in our hotel room in the mining town any more. Panic gripped me and I shot up to a sitting position, I was just about to lose it and freak out completely when a familiar golden light appeared and Loke stood there in his usual suit.

"Calm down princess everything is fine. Don´t you recognize where you are? You´re back in the beach house." He told me and after a few deep breaths to keep the panic away, I did recognize that I was back in my room at the beach house. I left the bed slowly and started searching for clothes, asking Loke for more information.

"How long have I been out? How did I get here?"

"You´ve been out cold for almost four days because of magic depletion. Laxus and Bickslow took turns carrying you back here."

"They… they carried me?" I asked, a heavy blush painting my cheeks.

"Yes princess but no need to worry, Evergreen and I made sure that they did nothing inappropriate. Evergreen and Virgo were to one to clean and dress you." I blushed even heavier and quickly locked myself in the bathroom with my fresh clothes to escape from Loke´s smirking face. Seconds later I felt him go back to the spirit world. I sighed and shook my head at his antics before turning on the water in the shower to hot and stripping out of my clothes, stepping underneath the spray of water.

After an hour in the bathroom and dressed in fresh clothes I felt even better, the only thing missing now was food so I quietly made my way down to the kitchen, expecting the others to still be asleep since the sun had yet to rise above the horizon.

But when I arrived in the kitchen I found Freed sitting there with a cup of coffee and another thick book. He looked up at the sound of my approaching footsteps and I could tell that he hadn´t expected to see me since he choked on his coffee. I hurried forward and lightly slapped his back until he could breathe properly again before moving to the fridge in search for food.

"Should you not be in bed? How are you feeling?" He asked me worriedly and pushed me down to sit in a chair while he started fixing me breakfast.

"No I´m fine now, my magic is replenished so there´s no need to worry. As soon as I get some food in me I´ll be as good as new. What about you? Did Fenix heal you alright?"

"Yes I am indeed fully healed thanks to your spirit…" He fumbled with something in his pocket before holding it out to me, showing me two silver gate keys. Part of our reward for taking out the wyverns.

I immediately recognized the keys as Canis Major the great dog and Leo Minor the lesser lion. I held out my hand palm up and Freed gently placed the keys in my hand, allowing me to curl my hand protectively around them and hold them close to my heart. I had found Loke´s little brother…

I gave Freed a large smile and asked him.

"Do you want to see me make a contract with them?"

"I… I do but what about your breakfast? And should you really call them out so soon? You have just recovered from severe magic depletion."

"Breakfast can wait another few minutes, making contracts don´t take long. It´s fine they are silver keys, they don´t take much magic to summon." I reassured him and walked outside without waiting for a response, he´d follow me if he wanted to watch.

When I was certain that I had enough room to summon my new spirits I grabbed the Canis Major key and held it out in front of me.

"_I am linked to the path to the world of Celestial Spirits, now! O spirit, answer my call and pass through the gate! Open! Gate of the Great Dog, Canis Major!"_ I chanted and immediately the familiar golden light appeared before a large dog stood in front of me. The dog was completely black and looked to be a crossbreed between a wolf and a black Labrador. He had a red collar with black studs and bright red eyes. His head reached to my chest with him standing on all four paws and he tilted his head at me and let out a short happy bark. There was a nametag attached to the collar so I leaned forward to read what it said before looking him in the eyes and speaking.

"Hello Bishamon, my name is Lucy Heartfilia do you want to make a contract with me?" The dog barked again and licked my hand as to show his approval. I quickly worked out the details of our contract with him and found out that as long as he was given treats, I could call on him whenever I needed him and that his specialty was tracking. Then he went back to the spirit world but before I called forth Leo Minor I called out Loke. I could see Freed standing a little bit away, watching me curiously as I interacted with my spirits.

"You called for me princess?" Loke greeted while bowing at his waist and kissing my hand.

"Yes I think that you will want to be present as I make a contract with my new spirit!" I told him happily before grasping Leo Minors key and chanting.

"_I am linked to the path to the world of Celestial Spirits, now! O spirit, answer my call and pass through the gate! Open! Gate of the lesser lion, Leo Minor!_" Loke´s eyes widened as a young boy appeared, bearing the same outwards appearance as Loke probably did at the age of 8. The boy looked up at me shyly and spoke.

"Hello master, how may I be of service?" My heart broke at the fear I could see in his eyes, his former owner must have been a bad one… I kneeled on the ground so that he could stand taller than me before I told him with a soft voice.

"Please don´t call me master… I´m not better than you, I work together with my spirits. Would you like to form a contract with me? You don´t have to if you don´t want to. You can talk it over with your brother before deciding anything." The boy's eyes widened before flashing to the side, taking notice of Loke who still seemed to be in shock at the appearance of his little brother.

"Loke?" The boy asked, clearly not believing his eyes. But his voice drew Loke out of the daze he was in and he smiled gently at the boy and told him.

"Yes it´s me Leon, you´re safe now."

Leon ran the few steps to Loke and threw himself in Loke´s open arms, Loke hugged him tightly and whispered comforting words in his ear, both of them shedding tears of happiness.

I decided to give the brothers a moment, feeling no need to stress either of them. Freed came up and stood next to me, his hand landing on my shoulder, making me tilt my head so that I could look at him from the corner of my eye.

"You truly are a great celestial mage; I have heard how kind you are to your spirits from others but to see it for myself… It is no wonder your spirits all adore you, if this is how you treat them all." I blushed at the praise but shook it off and told him.

"They may be immortal and from a different world but they are still people like you or me. I just treat them like how I would have liked to be treated had our positions been reversed." Freed simply smiled at me before letting me know that he was going back inside to continue making my breakfast. I only nodded absent-mindedly as I watched the two brother's reunion with a smile on my lips.

Eventually Leon let go of Loke and walked back to stand in front of me. I kneeled on the ground again but as I did that he flinched and his hands shot up in front of him as if he had to protect himself. My heart broke all over again but I gave the boy a gentle smile and told him.

"You don't have to be afraid of me Leon, I would never hurt you. Have you decided if you want to make a contract with me or do you need more time to think?" he gave me a hesitant smile and after shooting a look at Loke who nodded encouragingly at him, he spoke.

"I… I would like to make a contract with you Lucy-nee…" He said quietly while looking to the side.

"Aww… You´re so adorable Leon-chan… When are you available and what kind of magic do you use?"

"I´m not available between 10 pm to 8 am… I use light magic!" He told me and gave me another smile, a brighter and more confident one.

"That´s great, you can go back to the spirit world now if you want and if you have any questions for me or want to tell me something, you can tell Loke so can he let me know and I can call you out okay?" He nodded and went back to Loke, holding his hand as the two of them started to fade away. I saw Loke mouth a 'thank you' to me but I only smiled at the two of them. If I could make my spirits happy then I was happy too.

I went back inside just as Freed put a plate of waffles with whipped cream and fresh strawberries on the table for me. I squealed in happiness and wrapped my arms around him from behind, hugging him tightly.

"How did you know that this is my favorite breakfast?" I asked after letting him go and sitting down at the table. He poured himself another cup of coffee before joining me at the table, a prominent blush still adorning his cheeks.

"You always order it from Mirajane, I just assumed that you would not order it if you did not enjoy it." He answered, shifting awkwardly and sipping his coffee. I giggled at how cute he was when he was all awkward and blushing but then dug into my food, I was starving.

When my plate was empty Freed looked up at me with a serious expression on his face and told me.

"I wanted to thank you, for healing me in the mine. Without your help I wouldn´t have survived…"

"Don´t worry about it." I told him with a smile. "You would have done the same thing for me if the roles had been reversed. Besides, you already saved my life when you found me in the basement, I´m only repaying the favor."

"It doesn´t matter who saves who, we all belong to the Fairy Tail family and we should all be there for each other in our time of need." Another voice spoke from the doorway and both Freed and I turned to look at who had joined us.

It was Laxus, as usual dressed in black pants and a maroon shirt, his fur coat hanging open across his shoulders. His eyes still held traces of sleep and he made his way over to the coffee pot, pouring himself a large cup and taking a seat at the table with us.

"Of course Laxus, you are right as usual." Freed agreed before putting the dirty dishes from his breakfast as well as my own in the sink before leaving the room and heading back upstairs. As soon as Laxus and I were alone in the kitchen he turned to me with a serious expression and said.

"I´m glad to see you awake again, you were starting to worry us. I heard from Freed what happened but he couldn´t answer as to how you found the emerald key?"

"Well I´m fine now at least. The key was hidden in the mine and when our cavern collapsed it must have come free, luckily for us it was the key of the phoenix. Fenix is one of the animal kingdom keys and he uses healing magic as you know." I explained and I could see in his eye that he knew how close we had come to lose Freed and that it scared him. I put my hand on top of his larger one and tried to reassure him.

"Don´t worry Laxus, he´s fine." He only looked at me with those stormy blue-grey eyes of his before he said.

"I know." We sat in silence for a few minutes after that, I was playing with my glass of orange juice and Laxus drained his coffee in large gulps. As he went to refill it and put on some more for when Evergreen and Bickslow decided to wake up he told me.

"I talked to gramps when we returned here and let him know about the mission, he said that he would like to talk to you when you woke up. He said that it was about something in the guild and another possible mission for the five of us."

"Oh, okay then if I can borrow your communications lacrima I can go and call him right away."

"Of course, it´s on the nightstand in my bedroom." I nodded and stood up, draining the remaining juice in my glass in one go before placing it in the sink as well. I walked towards the stairs but stopped when I reached the doorway. I turned around and looked back at Laxus with worry in my eyes.

"Laxus?"

"Hmm?" He turned in his seat to look at me and I had to swallow before I could get my throat working again.

"He´s… He´s not mad at me is he?"

"Who? Gramps? Of course not Blondie why would you think that?" My eyes turned downwards as I answered him.

"Because I´m keeping you and your team away… Because I don´t want to go home yet…" I heard him get up from his seat and walk over to me but I didn´t raise my eyes. Not until he stopped in front of me and put his hand on top of my head again. Then my eyes shot up to meet with his and I was surprised to see him only smiling kindly at me. It was so rare to see him smile a true smile and not simply a smirk that I couldn´t tear my eyes away. I was startled when I realized that he was truly, heartbreakingly beautiful when he smiled.

My cheeks flamed red but I still couldn´t make myself look away. I knew he was hot, hell I wasn´t blind. But he always had his walls up to keep people at a distance that he never was seen as more that a hot body. When he smiled at me like this I felt like I could see the kindness of his soul, who he truly was.

"There´s no need to worry Lucy, Gramps is not angry. He understands why you can´t come home yet and we can still do missions, it´s alright." He told me and without thinking about the consequences, I hugged him tightly around the waist. He stiffened and when I realized what I was doing I blushed even harder before turning around and running up the stairs, leaving him standing in the doorway.

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><p><strong>Laxus POV<strong>

I was stunned to say the least. Not that Blondie carried insecurities, I knew that and everyone has something that they are insecure about. No what had surprised me so was that she had hugged me without thinking. I could tell that she was acting instinctively since I could feel the heat radiating off her cheeks when she realized it. Apparently she was more comfortable in my presence than I had thought.

And here I thought she was still wary of me because of what happened during the fantasia incident and because of how I behaved when they were attacked by Phantom Lord…

I knew that since even before the grand magic games I had taken more and more notice of our resident celestial mage. During the games I realized that she had the potential to become a legend thanks to her rare magic and kind heart and that only intrigued me more. I smiled sadly while still staring at the stairs where she had disappeared, I didn´t realize that I had fallen for her until her team came back and told us that she was dead.

I had decided to try and get to know her better so that maybe I could have a chance to win her heart and earn her forgiveness. I thought that since she had forgiven Gajeel, maybe she could forgive me too…

But then we got the news about her death and I felt something break inside of me. I refused to believe that she was gone and therefore took mission after mission in the area where team Natsu´s last mission had been, hoping to find something, anything that could tell me she was still alive.

The first thing to give me hope was that we never found her body, nor could I smell the lingering sickly-sweet stench of death.

And then we actually found her, chained to that wall in the basement. And she was still alive…

I was horrified at the state she was in but I didn´t feel that I could lower my walls and show exactly how I felt, I needed to be calm and collected for my team. I didn´t know if they had picked up on my feelings for Blondie and I didn´t want them to find out like that. But I´ll be damned if I let her be hurt like that ever again. My dragon instincts understood that she was important to me and only increased the protectiveness I felt for her.

Perhaps I still had a chance to make her mine.

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><p><strong>Lucy POV<strong>

I could feel Laxus eyes following me as I ran up the stairs and I quickly ran into his bedroom and shut the door behind me. I was seriously thinking about hiding away in my room after I had talked to Master and not come out until he surely had forgotten about how I had embarrassed myself.

I took a deep breath and shut my eyes for a moment, feeling the need to calm and center myself before calling Master. When I was satisfied that I looked calm and collected again I sat down on Laxus bed and grabbed the communications lacrima from the nightstand and called Master.

_"Laxus I… Lucy! Oh it´s great to see you child…"_ Master said with tears falling steadily from his eyes.

"Hello Master. It´s good to see you too." I told him with a small smile.

_"How are you doing? Can I help you with anything?"_

"I´m getting better Master, that´s all I can say. It´s enough that you let us stay here in your vacation home and leave my survival a secret for now. Laxus said you had something you wanted to talk to me about? Something about the guild and a possible mission?"

_"Yes I have kept a close eye on Natsu and Lisanna as well as the rest of team Natsu since Laxus called to let me know that you was alive and had been abandoned. Erza and Gray as well as Happy have been cleared from any suspicious behavior because of their reactions to your death. They as well as the rest of the guild have been devastated and are only beginning to function normally. I am worried that a few of our members are taking your death extremely hard but I will let you know if we need you to come back for their sake."_

"Yes please do, I might not be ready to come back yet but if my friends need me then I will come." I told him seriously and he nodded and smiled at me.

_"I know you would Lucy, you know the true meaning of nakama. You have my promise that I will call you if they don´t get better soon. But I´m afraid that I do have some bad news as well… Natsu and Lisanna were the ones who left you behind but I believe there are outer forces affecting them, for they are not themselves…"_

"Not themselves in what way? I noticed that Natsu had become more distant before the mission and I talked to Happy about it but we couldn´t think of why other than that Lisanna was his mate and he didn´t realize. He had started to spend a lot more time with her by then."

_"Natsu is still distant, and subdued which is really not like him… I thought his strange behavior was because of your death but since he knew you were alive when they left… He spends all of his time with Lisanna and even ignores Happy who is staying with Wendy and Carla because of that. There´s something strange about Lisanna as well but I can´t put my finger on what it is…"_

"Maybe something happened to make Natsu the way he is now? I know that something happened on one of the first missions he went on with only Lisanna but that was months ago… could it really be what´s affecting him?"

_"It´s not impossible… I was thinking about that too and did some research. They were supposed to find a book in some old sacred ruins. I was thinking about sending you and the Raijinshuu there to try and find out more, there´s a request to translate a book written in a dead language that I believe Freed could easily do. What do you think Lucy?"_

"I think that it sounds like a great idea, but why ask what I think when Laxus is the leader?"

_"He might be the leader of the Raijinshuu but not of you. You´re a smart girl Lucy, I value your opinions. Laxus told me that you have become a lot stronger so I have decided to nominate you for the S-class exams that are coming up, I hope that you will return to us in time for that at least…"_ I smiled at the short, old man and told him.

"Thanks master… I don´t think it will be too long until I return home. I hope you realize that I can´t continue to be a part of team Natsu though? Even if there´s a reason behind his betrayal I don´t think I can go back to how things were before… Maybe I´ll go solo for a while… I´ll tell Laxus about the translating mission and if the Raijinshuu don´t want to go then I´ll go to the ruins myself. Which town did the mission come from?"

_"I realize that child, have you thought about joining another team? The Raijinshuu perhaps? The mission came from the town Peonia but please don´t go alone, I´m sure the others will come with you if you talk to them."_ The master pleaded with me.

"I don´t think the Raijinshuu would want me on their team, they have such amazing bonds with each other and I wouldn´t want to change that. Thanks master and goodbye for now."

_"Goodbye my child, may luck be with you."_ The master told me before the communications lacrima was shut down. I put the lacrima back where I had found it and exited the bedroom. In the hallway I hesitated, trying to decide if I indeed was going go back to my room and hide or if I should go downstairs and tell them about our new mission.

I decided to be responsible and went back downstairs. I found all of them in the kitchen, seemingly waiting for me to join them.

"What did gramps say?" Laxus asked while looking me straight in the eyes with his usual smirk on his lips.

"That he thinks something is wrong with Natsu and maybe Lisanna, he wants us to go to some sacred ruins outside of Peonia to see if we can find something. Natsu and Lisanna went there to find a book on their first mission alone together and he thinks something might have happened then. There´s a request to translate a book in a dead language in the same town which he is sending us on so that we have a reason to be there, Freed can translate the book and the rest of us can search the ruins." I suggested to them.

"Sounds like a plan, let´s head out in the morning." Laxus decided and we all split up pack and prepare for another mission.

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><p>Please let me know what you think!<p>

Love C


	7. The ruins of Narcissus Palace

I do not own Fairy Tail

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><p><strong>A new Lucy<strong>

_Chapter Seven – The Ruins of Narcissus Palace_

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><p>We reached the city of Peonia without trouble and Freed immediately went to the client to start translating the book. He thought it would take him at least a few days to complete the mission but he had a communications lacrima with him so that he could stay in contact with us as we made our way to the ruins.<p>

I had asked Crux to research the ruins in case there really could be something there that had affected Natsu and Lisanna but he told me that it might take him a while to find something. We were walking through the forest in the direction of the ruins, the old man that had given us the directions told us that it would probably take us most of the day to get there and so I allowed my thoughts to run freely.

I was thinking about what Master had told me during our last conversation, that a few of my friends in the guild wasn´t doing so well. I couldn´t stop thinking about who it could be since he mentioned it, and how exactly they were doing since Master seemed so worried. I was thinking that maybe it was time to go back home and face the guild after this mission…

During the next few hours, I went over in my mind how I felt about everything that had happened lately. It had only been about a week and a half since the Raijinshuu rescued me but I was already feeling like I had put the events in that basement behind me. Mostly at least…

I eventually decided to talk to the others about maybe going back home after this mission and a day or two to wind down and relax. I would need it before facing the guild again…

It was late afternoon when I heard Crux voice in my head, giving me information on the place we were about to visit. I stopped as the information flooded me and didn´t even notice that the others had stopped as well until the information transfer was complete and I snapped back into reality.

"What just happened Cosplayer?" Bickslow asked, his babies spinning around his head.

"Crux sent me the information I had asked for, the ruins used to be a place called 'Narcissus Palace'. It was a temple built on sacred grounds for a man called Narcissus, he was a mage that was famous for his unselfishness and kindness but something happened to turn him away from the light. He became a dark mage and killed everyone in the temple. The temple has been abandoned ever since and has slowly been turning into a state of decay. There are rumors that the ruins are haunted and that Narcissus himself is still hiding himself somewhere deep in the ruins. He was said to have quite a few rare items and treasures and so treasure hunters from all over the world have gone inside the ruins in search of them, not many have ever returned…" I told them and we all pondered that fact for a while before deciding that we would just have to be careful before continuing on our way.

* * *

><p>We reached the ruins with only a few hours of daylight to spare, the ruins were overtaken by the surrounding forest but between the vines and greenery we could see the white stone of the crumbling buildings underneath. We could faintly see what must have been a path to the entrance and decided to follow it, only it was so narrow that we had to walk in a single line. Laxus took the lead with me following, Ever walking in third place and Bickslow pulling up the rear.<p>

We walked up a set of stairs and then through an open doorway into a chamber with inscriptions lining the walls and a throne like seat in the middle of the room. We spread out to search the room but I found myself drawn to the wall behind the throne, the inscriptions there were different and they caught my curiosity. I walked closer to read the small inscriptions and what was written on the wall made the hairs on my neck stand on end, then I saw Bickslow move to take a seat in the throne from the corner of my eye but before I could warn him of the consequences he sat down. The entire room started shaking as if an earthquake shook the ground and I hear Laxus voice bellow over the rumbling.

"What the hell is happening?!"

"It´s a trap! Bickslow tripped it when he sat down on the throne." I yelled back before the floor crumbled underneath our feet and we were sent falling into the darkness below.

The fall felt like it went on forever but was likely only seconds at most. Then we hit the ground, hard. I lied completely still, trying to feel if I had broken anything but since everything hurt that was not as easy as it should have been. The darkness was still total but then a rumbling noise from above indicated that the floor of the first chamber went back into its proper place and then small lighting lacrimas along the floor started to light up, giving us a faint yellow glow to see by.

"Everyone alright?" Laxus asked while coughing in the still dust-filled air. I tried to sit up but quickly discovered that my legs were trapped beneath a piece of stone. I looked around and saw that more than one piece of stone had fallen down; these ruins really were falling apart…

"Yeah…"

"I think so." Bickslow and Ever answered but I was too busy trying to get the stone slab off of me to hear them.

"Lucy?" I heard Laxus call and stopped what I was doing to look into the darkness that was slowly fading from the room.

"Huh? What?"

"Are you alright?"

"I think so but I´m stuck…"

"Okay just stay still and we´ll help you once we have enough light to see each other." He told me and I sighed but did as he asked me. soon there was enough light for me to see with my improved vision that Laxus and Bickslow were standing up, slightly hunched over so that they would be prepared in case an enemy appeared. Ever was sitting down with her back against the wall, she was bleeding from a small cut on her forehead but didn´t seem otherwise injured. Suddenly Ever looked up in my direction and asked me.

"Lucy did you lose your headband?" I reached up with one hand but couldn´t feel the soft fabric where it should be, I felt a small sting of panic at having nothing to protect my wolfish eye from other people but pushed it to the back of my mind for now. I knew that the Raijinshuu didn´t mind the looks of my new eye but ever since seeing the reactions of the townspeople in the mining town, I felt the need to keep it hidden at all times.

"Yeah, I must have dropped it when we fell… How did you know?" I asked her and noticed that she never took her eyes off my face, how did she manage that?

"Your wolf eye is glowing in the dark." I immediately shut my left eye and turned my head away, thinking that she had found it creepy.

"Sorry…" I mumbled but before Ever had time to respond the light became bright enough for the others to see by and they noticed what I meant when I told them that I was stuck.

"Dammit Blondie are you sure you´re not hurt? That´s a big piece of stone…" Laxus asked with a worried frown. I had gotten somewhat used to the thought of him worrying about his team but it still made me feel all warm inside when the worry was directed at me. I blamed it on not being used to him worry about me but somewhere deep inside of me I had the feeling that there was more to it than that…

"Yeah I think I´m okay… I can´t get this thing off of me though and I can´t reach my keys to get Taurus to help me."

"Don´t worry about it Cosplayer, Laxus and I will get you free in no time." Bickslow told me confidently with his signature grin, tongue lolling out. The two of them grabbed a hold of the stone and with muscles bulging from the strain; they lifted it enough for me to wiggle out and away. As soon as I was out from underneath the heavy block of stone they dropped it again and the thud echoed throughout the room.

I moved slowly just in case I had any injuries that had yet to make themselves, but no pains except for the slight ache from the bruises from the fall surfaced and I stood up to search the room for a way out. Bickslow and Laxus had the same idea as me and when they were sure that I had no injuries from being trapped underneath the rock they too started to search the walls for a hidden door or something. The room was circular and had no obvious exits and since the floor above our heads had returned to its original position we could not go back the way we came either.

I noticed that Evergreen was still sitting on the ground and I kneeled in front of her, making sure to keep my wolf eye closed as to not make her uncomfortable since it apparently glowed in the faint light down here.

"Hey Ever are you really okay? You didn´t hit your head did you?" I asked her, slightly concerned.

"Yeah… I didn´t hit it very hard, I´m just a little dizzy…" I frowned, even if she hadn´t hit her head hard she could still have a concussion and the dizziness indicated that it might be the case.

"That´s not good… I can call out Fenix to heal you if you want to?"

"You don´t need to do that, I´m fine. You might need your energy later, better save it now and heal me later if you still feel the need to than heal me now and get in trouble later because your magical levels are too low. Freed told me that the animal kingdom keys are really draining to summon and I don´t want you to put yourself at risk when I´ll be fine even without your healing." She told me calmly and with a gentle smile.

"I agree with Ever, you can heal her when we get out of here but for now save your energy. It might be tricky to get out of here…" Laxus spoke from his position across the room. Then suddenly Bickslow called out for us, having found something of interest.

"Come look at this guys, there´s something written here…" I helped Evergreen up and supported her with an arm around her waist as we walked over to Bickslow to see what he had found. There was another inscription on one portion of the wall, much like the ones in the room above our heads. My hand reached out almost on its own to trace the inscription as I read it to myself.

* * *

><p><em>To those that have fallen from grace.<em>

_Those who have entered this chamber, the first of many._

_Your trials have only just begun._

_To find the center and earn your freedom you must pass a number of tasks._

_The first one will need a strong faith._

_The second a mind like no other._

_The third will need strength, both in body and soul._

_The fourth requires agility but then you have reached your goal._

_Now exit this place of limbo and begin._

* * *

><p>Below the inscription was a hole in the wall and after a slight hesitation, I put my hand inside only to find my fingers grasping a lever. I pulled it and with a ominous grumbling sound, a piece of the wall slid away to reveal a tunnel leading further into the unknown. No one moved but after a minute or so Laxus stepped inside the tunnel and told us.<p>

"Well, let´s go then we won´t get out or find something while staying here." We hesitated for a second longer but then we all followed after Laxus and after walking for a little while, we heard the wall slid back into place behind us, forcing us to keep moving forward no matter what.

We walked for what felt like a very long time before reaching another chamber, this one larger than the one before. The room was empty and on the far side of the room we could see another tunnel, but in the middle of the room a stretch of the floor was missing. Making a trench both wide and unfathomably deep, the obstacle we needed to pass.

"We´re not going to be able to jump across that…" I whispered mostly to myself but Laxus heard me and responded.

"Nope, but we´ll make it. Bickslow can have his babies carry him, Ever have her fairy wings and I can use my lighting teleportation with you." I only nodded but when we stepped closer I was overcome by a horrible draining sensation that left me feeling completely empty, as if something was missing from my very soul.

"Oh for fucks sake… The room has anti-magic wards. We can´t use our magic in here." He explained and I felt a sliver of fear staining my mind, how would we make it out of here without our magic?

Laxus walked up to the trench and peered over the edge, trying to see the bottom. Then he focused his eyes on the other side judging the distance before he turned back to us and asked us.

"What did the inscription say we needed to pass this task?"

"Strong faith." I answered him immediately and he nodded absent mindedly before doing something that shocked us all deeply.

He stepped over the edge and disappeared from sight.

"LAXUS!" I yelled rushing forward while Evergreen and Bickslow were standing ram-rod straight and unmoving, to shocked to say a word. I fell to my knees and leaned over the edge only to see Laxus standing there, completely unharmed and grinning widely. It took me a moment to realize that the endless depth of the trench had been a simple illusion and that there was no danger here.

I visibly sagged and allowed my body to collapse onto my back, staring at the ceiling high above my head for a moment before closing my eye and letting out a sigh of relief. For a moment I really thought he would fall to his death and abandon us here…

I suddenly realized that he had managed to worm his way into my heart, becoming one of the best friends I had ever had along with the rest of the Raijinshuu. I didn´t want him to leave me… I didn´t want anyone of them to leave me but somehow the feeling was even stronger when considering Laxus. A thought crossed my mind that maybe I was starting to grow feelings for him that I was better off not to but I immediately pushed them away again, deciding that now was not the time to think about it. Besides, it wasn´t like he could ever feel the same for me anyway…

"Lucy open your eyes." A voice demanded from above me and I opened my right one, keeping my wolf eye closed just in case. Laxus was leaning over me, his storm colored eyes peering down at me.

"Are you okay?" I only nodded my head yes to his question, not bothering to try and find my voice.

"Then let´s go, we have three more of these tasks to do." He said and pulled me up by the hand, not letting me go as he helped me across the fake trench. When we reached the other tunnel we got the use of our magic back and I called forth Virgo to get us some food and water, we needed to eat to be able to keep our strength up.

After some food my body felt heavy with tiredness and leaned back against the wall behind me, making myself as comfortable as possible before slipping into a deep sleep.

* * *

><p><em>I was back in the chamber we just left and I realized on some level that this was only a dream, that nothing here could hurt me. But when I turned around and saw all four members of the Raijinshuu standing very close to the edge of the trench, dangerously close if the trench had not been fake.<em>

_They all had their heads tilted towards the ground but then Bickslow raised his head, looking me right in the eyes as he spoke with a voice that sounded as dead as his normally vibrant red eyes looked._

_"You are weak; your keys are the only ones holding strength. You are the one relying on their strength and not the other way around." Then he took a step back and disappeared from view. Tears filled my eyes but I refused to let them fall, I knew he didn´t really think that, this was just a nightmare, just a bad dream. The next one to speak was Evergreen._

_"You´re pathetic, a stupid little bitch who can´t even realize when you´re not wanted. We don´t need you, you will only drag us down." And with that said, she too took a step backwards and disappeared from sight._

_"You are a nuisance, a clingy little baby who are too stupid to realize what other people think about you. I wish you had stayed with your father, you don´t belong in Fairy Tail." Freed told me and I couldn´t hold the tears back any longer, they fell as he disappeared into the trench with his teammates._

_Then I turned towards the last person standing there with me, hoping against reason that he wouldn´t tell me cruel things as well._

_"I wish we had never found you in that basement, we don´t need you. we were better off with you dead, if only Natsu had had the courage to end you himself…" What was left off my heart shattered at hearing what he had to say and after he disappeared into the trench as well I slowly crept closer and peered over the edge._

_They were all gone, the trench apparently wasn´t a fake anymore._

_I allowed my body to collapse at the edge and then I realized that I was all alone, that the Raijinshuu had preferred death to my company and my heart shattered completely._

_I screamed._

* * *

><p>I jerked awake and quickly looked around with panicked eyes and a rushing heartbeat only to calm down when I realized that we were still in the tunnel where we had stopped for food. Bickslow and Evergreen were leaning against each other at the wall across from me and when I saw that both of them were sleeping I relaxed a little.<p>

It had only been a dream… a horrible nightmare of a dream but still a dream.

I suddenly noticed that I was leaning against something warm and I looked to the side to see Laxus fur coat. I must have turned towards his heat in my sleep and started leaning on him instead of the wall. I slowly looked up, hoping that he too was asleep but when my eyes met his I knew I had no such luck.

"Nightmares?" He asked me and I felt my eyes widen in surprise, how did he know that? He must have realized what I was thinking because he told me.

"You were crying in your sleep, I was just about to wake you."

"Oh… thank you. Sorry I´m so much trouble…" I said quietly and looked away from him.

"You´re not any trouble where did you get that idea? And why do you keep your left eye closed? I know you lost your bandanna in the fall but you don´t need it."

"I might have dreamt that all of you guys told me how worthless I was and how much better you would have it if I just disappeared… And I keep my eye closed because Ever told me that it glowed in the dark, I think she thought it was creepy…" I admitted with my head turned in the other direction, I couldn´t believe that I had just admitted all of that…

Suddenly the thick, strong arm belonging to Laxus wrapped around my middle and pulled me closer until I was sitting in his lap. A fierce blush flared up on my cheeks and instinctively closed both of my eyes tightly. I was turned around so that I was facing Laxus, straddling his lap in the process and then he spoke to me.

"Open your eyes Lucy." He demanded and I cracked open my right eye, took a peek at his serious face so close to my own before closing it again, shaking my head no lightly.

"Why won´t you look at me?"

"Because I´m afraid… I´m not strong like you guys, I might be stronger than before but I´m still not strong enough…"

"But you are strong Lucy, what do you feel that you aren´t strong enough for?" He asked quietly as to not wake up the others.

"I´m not strong enough to survive on my own… what do I do when you guys leave me too?" I asked him weakly and cursed the tears that gathered in my eyes. The damned nightmare had caused one of my greatest fears to arise and now Laxus would know about it. That being alone is what I fear the most…

"But you don´t have to be alone Lucy, we won´t leave you like Natsu did. You can stay with us for as long as you want." Laxus told me, trying to convince me that my fears were not going to come true.

"You can´t promise that. You can´t promise that you will all stay with me and that I can stay with you for as long as I want, the others have to get to decide that for themselves." I told him seriously, not accepting that he made that kind of promise for them.

"Well then how about I promise you that I won´t abandon you like Natsu did? That you can stay with me for as long as you want to?" He asked me confidently grinning widely. I was surprised to say the least; I had not expected him to give me those promises.

"But what if you get tired of me or…" I started to say but was interrupted when Laxus put his hand over my mouth. He gave me a serious look before his eyes softened and his grin turned to a genuine smile. He then leaned forward until his mouth was right next to my ear and then he spoke softly.

"I won´t ever get tired of you Lucy, you´re an amazing woman with astonishing magic capabilities and you intrigue me. Is it really so hard to comprehend that I really like you for you?" His lips ghosted over the outer shell of my ear as he spoke and goosebumps broke out on my skin. I shivered as his hot breathe blew across the side of my neck before he pulled back to look me in the eye again.

"You don´t ever have to be alone again unless you want to, you will always have me." He promised and a smile broke out on my lips as my left eye opened as well. I looked at him with my two mismatched eyes and then he gently traced the now white scar on my face with one of his fingers. Looking directly into my softly glowing wolf-eye he told me.

"You are beautiful Lucy, no matter if you have scars or mismatched eyes. Ever don´t think that your eye is creepy, she probably thought it was beautiful as well, because that´s what I think." He told me honestly and slowly leaned forward, coming even closer to my face. He looked as if he was about to tell me something important but then a laugh from the other side of the tunnel made us flew apart and look at Evergreen and Bickslow.

Bickslow had woken up and when seeing that Evergreen were hugging his arm to her chest, holding on to it as if it were a teddy bear, mumbling in her sleep about Elfman, he lost it and burst out laughing before noticing the position that Laxus and I were in.

I quickly got off Laxus lap and sat down beside him again before Bickslow noticed it and I thought for a moment that I heard Laxus sigh in disappointment but that was probably just my imagination. He then stood up and walked over to Bickslow and the newly wakened Evergreen and started yelling at Bickslow, telling him to keep it down when other people were trying to sleep.

I only smiled softly to myself before remembering that we still had three tasks to complete before having a chance of getting out of here. While feeling safe and comforted by Laxus promises, a lot could still go wrong.

We weren´t safe yet.

* * *

><p>Hi I hope that everyone has had a pleasant christmas and I wish everyone a happy new year!<p>

Please let me know what you think?

Love C


	8. The secret of Narcissus Palace

I do not own Fairy Tail.

* * *

><p><strong>A new Lucy<strong>

_Chapter Eight – The secret of Narcissus Palace_

* * *

><p>We found the second chamber and the second task not long after we began walking again. The second task was a huge chessboard; we had to win a game of chess to be able to pass. We were the white pieces and the black ones were played by the ghosts of people that had been here before and not succeeded in their tasks. Evergreen took control of the game and directed us to which piece went to what place, apparently she and Freed used to play together but since Freed wasn´t here, she was the best one for this particular task.<p>

We did win the game but it was a close call a couple of times so it was with relief that we left the chamber behind us and continued down the tunnel.

The third chamber was only about a twenty minute walk away but when we reached it we stopped before entering. The room was completely empty and the opening of the tunnel on the other side was beckoning for us to come closer. The one thing that put us on edge was the skeletons that were still lying on the floor were their bodies had fallen.

Clearly the room wasn´t as harmless as it looked.

Laxus was the first one to step inside the room but despite a grimace on his face there was no indication that something was wrong. He made it to the other tunnel and shouted back at us.

"It hurts to move while you´re in the room but it´s manageable." He warned us and then Evergreen was the next one to go. She moved much slower than Laxus and I could see the strain on her body. She cried out in pain every now and then but she made it safely across. Bickslow gestured for me to go next and after a second of hesitation, I stepped into the room and started walking.

The pain was bad, it felt like every nerve-ending in my entire body were on fire but like Laxus had said, it was still manageable, at least for us, the people before us probably hadn´t felt the same. I simply closed my eyes and forced my body to move.

It was a huge relief to reach the other side, the pain disappeared and my knees went weak. I would have fallen if not for Laxus steadying me and letting me lean on him as Bickslow made his way across the room as well.

We rested for a while to regain our strength before moving on forwards, towards the fourth and last chamber and obstacle.

The fourth chamber was different from the others, when we reached it there was a sign on the wall, warning us that only one of us would be allowed inside this chamber and that the survival of the entire group would depend on if the person succeeded or not.

"What was required for this task?" Ever asked me.

"Agility." I spoke quietly, thinking hard about who would be the best choice.

"Then I´m out of the question, if I have a concussion I´ll just mess up." Ever said and looked towards Laxus to get his opinion.

"I´d suggest that either Blondie or Bix does it." He told us.

"I think Lucy should do it, she´s smaller than I am and she might benefit from that, becoming a smaller target and all that…" Then they all looked at me, waiting for my response.

"If you think I can do it then I will do my best." I promised them and they all smiled at me, giving me encouraging slaps on the back to show their support as I stepped inside the seemingly empty chamber before us. I felt the loss of my magic but had come to expect it from previous experiences so I wasn´t startled.

Suddenly something came at me with high speed and only my new and improved reflexes prevented me from getting pierced by a needle dripping with a fluid that was probably poison. Then several more came at me from their hidden places in the walls and I began my dance with death, dodging and turning and bending my body at almost impossible angles to avoid being hit by the needles. I lost all track of time but soon my body grew tired and my muscles ached with overuse.

I felt a needle pierce my thigh and then only moments after that I reached the safety of the other side and allowed myself to collapse flat on my back on the floor. I felt the burning poison starting to spread and quickly gripped one of my keys, calling out Fenix.

_"Open! Gate of the Phoenix, Fenix!"_

"Princess! Are you alright?! What happened?!" Fenix asked me frantically while searching me for injuries.

"A poisoned needle in my thigh, can you fix it?" I asked him calmly despite the burning sensation that slowly spread.

"The needles were poisoned?" Another voice asked and I looked up to see that Bickslow, Laxus and Evergreen just had arrived safely from across the room. I simply nodded my head yes as my eyes slid shut while Fenix slowly removed the needle and then the poison from my body.

"But we managed to clear all of the tasks didn´t we? We should be able to find some answers as well as a way out from here now…" I said slowly as the last of my energy disappeared and I fell unconscious.

* * *

><p>When I woke up again, I was in a real bed which surprised me greatly, I couldn´t have been out for that long right? I sat up and noticed that it was late at night thanks to the dark sky outside the window, I was alone right now but I had a feeling that it was only temporary.<p>

The room was enveloped in a familiar golden light as one of my spirits came through on their own and I turned around to face whoever was coming, even if it probably only was Loke checking up on me like last time I had fallen unconscious.

But to my surprise it wasn´t Loke who did not come through, nor was it Virgo. Instead Fenix stood there in his red leather pants and white shirt, watching me with a gentle smile.

"How are you feeling princess?" He asked while putting a hand on my thigh, enveloping it in his healing light for a moment as if to reassure himself that there was no lingering poison left in my system. I already knew that he had healed me completely though, I felt great, rejuvenated.

"I feel fine Fenix, you did a good job. Do you know what happened after I fell unconscious? How did I get here? Did we find the information we were looking for?" I asked him, eager for news.

"Yes I believe that the others found some information… As for how you got here, the dragon slayer teleported all of you back to town and then he sent the other two to inform the one I healed before about the situation and to tell him that they should all meet back at the beach house when he finished his mission and after that he carried you here. I healed the other girl's concussion as well since I figured that is what you would have wanted from me." Fenix told me and his smile turned from gentle to mischievous before he told me.

"Also did you know that you´re the dragon slayers mate?"

"WHAT?!" I shrieked and flung myself backwards, landing on my back on the bed.

"Jeez… did you have to be so loud? I already know you like him whether you realize it or not, it´s all written out in your hormones. I don´t think he knows that you are his mate though… He likes you, but I don´t think that he has realized that the dragon instincts telling him to protect and be close to you are a sign that you´re his mate. I might have to have a talk with him…"

"Oh god please no…" I whimpered and turned around in the bed so that I could bury my face in the covers to try and hide from this embarrassing conversation.

"Sorry princess, it´s for your own good." Fenix told me before disappearing out the door, leaving me slack-jawed with disbelief before groaning and hiding in the covers again. I did realize that I liked Laxus, that's why it was so embarrassing… I sighed and burrowed even further into the bed, I might realize that I liked Laxus but that didn't mean I was going to do something about it. I didn´t think that he felt the same even if I might´ve been wrong about that… But I also didn´t know if I was going to be able to open up and trust him to the degree he deserved if we got together.

I sighed again and decided to just stop thinking about it and to tackle that problem when or if it turned up. Since Fenix had come through his gate on his own power I couldn´t tell if he was still here or if he had gone back to the spirit world. I hoped he had gone back and wasn´t telling Laxus about this me being his mate stuff though…

* * *

><p><strong>Laxus POV<strong>

I was down at the restaurant belonging to the hotel, looking to get some food for myself and the sleeping blonde up in the room when her red-headed spirit healer walked up to me and told me bluntly.

"My princess is awake now and there´s no lingering damage done from the poison, she´s completely healthy. Did you realize that she´s your mate though? I can tell that she has feelings for you but you have to be careful when you talk to her about it, make sure that you don´t scare her away. You would be good for each other. See ya!"

And with that he poofed out of existence and left me alone with a dumbfounded expression and more questions than answers. But then it all clicked. Her damned spirit was right, Lucy was my mate. My instincts screamed the truth at me and demanded that I tell Lucy so that I could mark her as mine but I knew that I had to hold them back. I would only frighten her if I didn´t explain everything to her first and the last thing I wanted to do was to have her frightened of me. She didn´t have that many people that she trusted anymore and I didn´t want to lose my position as one of those precious few.

Having decided that the easiest and best way to solve all of this was to simply talk to her about it, I ordered our food and remembered as I waited for it to be ready that I had to tell her about what we found in the ruins as well.

* * *

><p><strong>Lucy POV<strong>

The mouthwatering scent of freshly cooked food reached my sensitive nose before I heard the door open and the heavy footsteps of Laxus entered the room. I did my best to pretend that I was still asleep since I didn´t want to show myself if Fenix really had talked to him like he said he would.

"You awake Blondie?" He asked me and I sat up, watching him as he put the food down on a table. It didn´t look like he had talked to Fenix…

"Yeah I´m awake…" I mumbled and made my way over to him and plopped down on a chair as he put my food in front of me. I thanked him quietly and we ate in silence, both of us seemingly lost in our own thoughts.

"Lucy we need to talk." Laxus told me after the food was gone and I moved back to sit on the bed.

"Sure, what about?" I asked nervously despite the feeling in my stomach that told me that I already knew what he was about to say. Laxus took a seat next to me on the bed and asked me seriously.

"How much do you know about dragon slayers and their instincts?" I sighed but answered him anyway; we needed to talk about this if what Fenix told me earlier was true.

"Only what Natsu and Levy has told me. Natsu told me mostly about how the instincts affected him in battle and about the higher senses and Levy told me a little about mates when she found out that she was Gajeel´s mate. She said that the dragon in Gajeel told him that she was the one for him even before he realized that himself, she said that when a dragon slayer mates they mate for life and that the mating itself is a rather peculiar process."

"Yeah that´s right, the dragon instincts automatically know who is right for us and there will only ever be one person that fits us that well. We will always protect and care for our mates, treasuring them and even lay down our own lives for them." Laxus agreed and I tilted my head in curiosity, the embarrassment forgotten for now.

"How exactly does a dragon slayer mate? What does it entail?" He looked away for a moment, his cheeks flushing a faint pink before he turned back towards me and told me.

"Well… the final bonding happens during sex, we bite our mate and infusing the bite with a little bit of our magic, leaving a mark behind. But for that to happen the mate have to accept being a dragon slayers mate, it won´t happen if one part doesn´t want it to." I nodded absent-mindedly trying to process all this new information when I realized something.

"How do you know all of this? You didn´t have a dragon to tell you stuff like this…" He looked away again and said quietly.

"Gajeel taught me… He has been teaching Natsu and Wendy as well since their dragons left them before teaching them everything."

"He really is a good guy despite the stand-offish behavior he keeps up…" I concluded and Laxus nodded his agreement. We were silent for a few more minutes before I had gathered enough courage to ask the first embarrassing question on my mind.

"Fenix told me that I was your mate, is that true?" I held my breath as I waited for him to answer and answer me he did. He locked his gaze with mine, his blue-grey eyes filled with so many different emotions that they really looked like a stormy sky.

"Yes it´s true, you are my mate." The silence that followed his answer was slightly suffocating and I dared not look at him in fear of what I would see. What if he didn´t really want me to be his mate? I knew that my fear was irrational but I couldn´t help myself, he had made me a promise that he wouldn´t leave me and I believed that promise but that didn´t mean that he saw me in a romantic way… and promises could be broken.

"Talk to me Lucy, I can´t help you if you´re shutting me out like this." Laxus spoke from beside me and I slowly looked up and met his eyes again. They had turned a dark blue from worry and to my surprise I could see a trace of pain in them coming from seeing my distress.

I was suddenly overwhelmed by the realization that he actually wanted me to be his mate, that he actually loved me for me. The expression he wore was open and I could read his emotions just as easy as if they were words on a book page.

"You actually don´t mind me being your mate?" I asked him eventually and his eyes widened almost comically before reassurance after reassurance spewed from his mouth.

"Of course not Lucy! Why would you get the idea that I didn´t want you? Have I done something to make you believe that?" I could see the frazzled emotions in his eyes, fear that I would reject him and hope for that I would accept him, self-hate in case he was the one to make me feel so unsure.

"No you haven´t done anything but I figured that since you have no control over it then maybe you simply didn´t have a choice in the matter… And I don´t know why you would want to be with me so…" I told him quietly and averted my eyes.

"There´s a lot of reasons as to why I would want to be with you Lucy, You´re kind, brave and strong. You have a huge heart and don´t bear grudges for things in the past, you´re beautiful inside and out. The better question is to ask why someone like you would want someone like me. Also even though you´re right that we have no choice in who our instincts tell us to mate. They don´t tell us to mate someone who is wrong for us, you are my mate and that means that there is no one that I would be happier spending the rest of my life with." He said calmly and gently raised my chin until I met his eyes again. His eyes were calm but I could see a resignation in them that told me that he was sure I was going to reject him and that pained me.

"Do you really think that I am all that?" I asked quietly as tears gathered in my eyes, preparing to fall. His eyes were filled with honesty as he looked me in the eyes and answered.

"I do. I love you Lucy, it´s as simple as that." My tears fell and he wiped them away before kissing my forehead, pulling me into hug that warmed me all the way to my bones.

"I may be a broken mess but I… I love you too Laxus…" My voice broke as sobs racked my body, I really did love him but it was hard to admit since I was such a mess. I couldn´t understand how things was going to work out but for now, I decided to trust Laxus dragon instincts on the matter, hoping that they wouldn´t lead him into an unhappy relationship with me and to take things slowly and one day at a time.

I guess I fell back asleep when my sobs had stopped because when I opened my eyes I was met with Laxus happy ones only inches away.

"Morning sleepy head how was the nine hour nap?" He asked me with a smile and it took me a few minutes to comprehend what he had said.

"What! Nine hours! You mean I slept through the night?!"

"You sure did Blondie." He replied with a small laugh but when he saw my expression he pulled me closer and pressed another kiss to my forehead.

"It´s okay Lucy, you needed the sleep." He reassured me and I relaxed again, how could I not when his large, warm hands made gentle trails on my back. I closed my eyes again and sighed contently before asking him.

"How are we going to do this Laxus? I´m afraid to think about what will happen when we return to the guild…" I admitted.

"We´ll do things slow, as long as I get to be close to you, you can decide when we move forward. Don´t worry about the guild, it will work out fine and if you feel otherwise even after a few weeks then we can go again. We could stay in the beach house and only come to the guild once a month or so." I didn´t say anything after that, I didn´t feel the need to. He was clearly prepared to do anything to make me happy even though I hoped that we would be able to stay close to the guild. Suddenly I remembered that we had never gotten around to talk about what they had discovered at the ruins when I was knocked out and I immediately asked Laxus about that, eager for some answers.

"What did we find in the ruins? Do we know why Natsu and Lisanna are behaving so weird?"

"We found a book… and I believe we do." Laxus said slightly absent-mindedly as he slipped into his memories.

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><p><em><strong>Flashback Laxus POV<strong>_

_The moment Lucy fell unconscious I felt panic grip me tightly in its claws, the needles were poisoned… would she be able to pull through? I shook my head to rid myself of these negative thoughts, of course she would be alright, her spirits would never let her die just like that and she was strong, she would make it._

_I tore my eyes from her pale and unmoving form and searched our surroundings, we should be able to find what we came here for somewhere around here._

_"Will she be alright?" I heard Bix ask her red-headed healer spirit and after a quick look at him I realized that he felt guilty for not taking on the challenge himself. Her spirit answered that she would be fine, that there was no need for us to worry. He was clearly answering Bickslow ´s question but he was looking straight at me when he spoke, letting me know that he knew of my feelings for his master._

_When he was done healing her he moved on to heal Evergreens injuries as well and warned us that while Lucy would be alright, she most likely would be asleep for at least another few hours._

_He then poofed back to the spirit world and I picked up Lucy from the ground, cradling her in my arms as we walked down the last tunnel to our final destination._

_When we reached another chamber we entered it cautiously, hoping that there would be no traps here and that it would be the last chamber we needed to visit before we could get the hell out of here. This chamber was different from the others though, along the walls golden runes gleamed faintly and in the middle of the room was a pedestal that carried a book on its back._

_The book was clad in green leather and a golden rune was etched on its front. I handed Lucy over to Bix as I walked up to the pedestal and carefully touched the book, waiting for and expecting something to happen when I did._

_But nothing happened and I picked up the book without a problem, opening it to see what was written inside. Only to see line after line written in a language I did not understand in the slightest. It wasn´t written in runes though, but in a foreign language that I had never seen before._

_I returned to the others with the book and showed it to them but they had never seen the language before as well. Freed could probably recognize it and maybe even Lucy since she had mostly likely had to learn other languages as a part of her noble upbringing. But none of them was in any position to translate the book at the moment so we would simply have to wait before getting to know what it said._

_Suddenly a voice seemed to echo from the walls themselves and all three of us flinched as it spoke._

_"Well done! Not many pass the trials and make it to their goal. The book holds the information you seek now leave my palace and never return again."_

_A hidden door in the wall slid away and revealed to us the way out, we all shared a look before entering the new tunnel and walked to our freedom. We would simply have to trust the voice telling us that the book is what we came here for._

_**End Flashback**_

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><p><strong>Lucy POV<strong>

"So according to the voice the information we need is written in the book?" I asked Laxus to clarify.

"Yes, Freed took one look at it and said that he could translate it for us even though it might take him a while, apparently the language it´s written in is almost extinct." He said and stretched slowly, relishing in the movement as a series of small pops came from his spine as it realigned itself.

"Do you feel okay enough to travel?" He asked me then and I nodded my head yes.

"Yeah I feel fine, we need to get back to the beach house either way because I have a feeling that I need to go back to the guild. Master told me that some of the guild members' didn´t take my "death" very well and that I might need to come back for their sake. I have a feeling that that time has come." I told him honestly with a bad feeling clenching my heart.

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><p>Let me know what you think! And for those of you who have asked, they will return to the guild in the next chapter.<p>

Love C


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